OF   THIC 

University  of  California. 

Received         ^^2^^  f --^^^^^    •  ^^9.1  • 
Accession  No.  ^  (^  Y^i-       Class  No. 


{^^tns^y^^C<^U.^C 


The  Bible 


ITS  TRUE   CHARACTER  AND    SPIRITUAL 
MEANING, 


Compliments  of 

EEV.  L.  P.  MERCER. 
// 

UMON   SWEDENBORGIAN    CUUIICH,    CHICAGO. 


Without  a  Parable  spake  He  not  unto  them.—'M.ATT.  xiii,  31. 


;uiri7iRsiTr] 

JANSEN,  McCLUR?r&  COMPANY. 

1879. 


<>,c.5('jY 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1879,  oy 

L.  P.  MERCER, 
In  the  Oflace  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 

T 


M^ 


J,vi^     l^^.^lvT')^^' 


STEREOTYPED,    PRINTED    AND    BOUND 


THE   CHICAGO    LEGAL   NEWS   COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


The  object  of  these  Lectures  is  to  present 
the  teaching  of  Swedenborg  concerning  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  in  a  form  likely  to  reach 
those  who  might  otherwise  remain  in  ignorance 
of  it ;  and  for  this  purpose  I  have  used  what- 
ever in  the  collateral  writings  of  the  New 
Church  I  have  found  available  for  argument 
or  illustration.  Whatever  has  thus  been  as- 
similate)^ into  the  scheme  and  purpose  of  this 
presentation,  I  of  course  make  myself  responsi- 
ble for;  but  if  credit  is  to  be  given,  I  wish  to 
say  it  very  likely  belongs  to  others.  It  is 
only  fair  to  add,  that  the  Lectures,  delivered 
from  time  to  time,  which  have  appeared  in  the 
Chicago  Times,  called  forth  expressions  of 
interest  from  various  sources,  which  suggested 
the  probable  usefulness  of  printing  them  in  this 

present  form. 

L.  P.  M. 

Chicago,  Advent^  1879. 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


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IMITBRSIITl 

OONTEISTTS 


PAGE 

I.  THE  BIBLE  A  BOOK  OF  DIVINE  PARABLES    .      5 

Man  Needs  a  Revelation  ....  9 
It  Must  Contain  a  Spiritual  Sense  .  .  12 
The  Claim:  of  the  Scriptures  .  .  ,18 
The  Testimony  op  Tradition       ...       20 

II.  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  CORRESPONDENCE :    A 

KEY  TO  DIVINE  PARABLES        ...  27 

The  Need  of  some  Key         ....  29 

The  Law  op  Correspondence  Stated     .        .  33 

Its  Application  Illustrated        ...  42 

III.  THE  LAW  OF  DIVINE  INSPIRATION      .        .    55 

The  Inspiration  Common  to  All         .        .        57 
The  Inspiration  op  Prophets  and  Evan- 
gelists        .65 

The  Inspiration  of  the  Writing  .  .  66 
The  Power  of  the  Word  thus  Inspired      .    70 

(1) 


2  .    CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

IV.  THE  HISTORY  OF  REVELATION    ...       80 

The   History  of   Revelation   the  History 

OF  the  Church 81 

The  Meaning  of  Creation    ....        86 

The  Adamic  Church 92 

The  Noetic  Church 95 

The  Preparation  for  the  Incarnation        .  100 

The  Incarnation 104 

The  Gospel  and  the  Second  Advent    .        .  108 

V.  THE  REAL  AND  APPARENT  IN  THE  SCRIP- 

TURES     118 

The  Principle  of  Adaptation  •  •  .  120 
Apparent  Contradictions  ....  123 
The  Wars  of  the  Jews 142 

VI.  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE : 

AN  ANSWER  TO  SKEPTICAL  OBJECTIONS  158 

The  Churches  Need  It 161 

General  Answer  to  Skepticism  .  .  .  175 
The  Question  of  Authenticity  .  .  .  179 
The  Mythical  Element  in  Scripture  .  182 
The  Morality  of  Scripture  ....  188 
The  Real  Infallibility        .       •       •       ,191 


TRUE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


THE  BIBLE. 
I. 

A  BOOK  OF  DIYINE  PAEABLES. 

Without  a  parable  spake  he  not  unto  them.— Matt,  xiii:  34. 

A  parable  involves  jtwo  distinct  series  of 
ideas ;  one  pertaining  to  principles,  the  other 
to  persons  and  things.  The  power  of  the  par- 
able lies  in  this,  that  its  distinct  series  of  ideas 
are  related  as  man's  faculties  of  abstract  and 
sensuous  thought  are  related.  It  is  a  series  of 
spiritual  ideas  clothed  in  a  series  of  natural  in- 
cidents, which  by  their  dramatic  force  fix  the 
interest  and  enlist  the  sympathies,  and  yield 
their  inner  meaning  in  the  ratio  of  man's  as- 
cending thought.  As  the  mind  is  indrawn 
from  sensuous  to  spiritual  thought,  the  narra- 
tive loses  its  incidental  character,  and  becomes 
simply  the  mirror  in  which  is  presented  the 
image  of  spiritual  principles  and  their  rela- 
tions.    The  distinctness  of  this  image  will  be 

(5) 


6  DIVINE  PARABLES, 

ill  the  ratio  of  man's  growing  wisdom ;  and 
meanwhile  the  picture  itself  is  vivified  by  the 
principle  personified  or  the  truth  embodied. 
Thus  it  is  that  the  parable  speaks  at  once  to 
the  child  and  the  philosopher ;  and  as  the  in- 
dividual ascends  the  steps  of  maturer  wisdom 
its  meaning  opens  to  his  expanding  conscious- 
ness. The  divine  parable  of  the  Prodigal  is 
to  the  child,  who  hears  it  first  at  his  mother's 
knee,  a  simple  story,  presenting  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  personal  history ;  the  youth  learns  to 
regard  it  as  history  teaching  by  example ;  the 
man  perceives  that  the  historical  form  is  only 
an  investiture  assumed  for  the  purpose  of  illus- 
tration ;  and  yet,  throughout  this  process,  the 
spiritual  interest  of  the  story  is  developing  in 
clearness,  till  finally  the  image  of  the  father- 
hood, forgiveness  and  providence  of  Divine 
love,  which  was  not  wholly  absent  from  the 
child's  first  impressions,  becomes  supreme  to 
the  man's  thought. 

Now,  let  us  reflect  whether  it  would  make 
any  difference  in  the  value  or  intention  of  that 
parable  if  we  were  to  find  it  recorded  among 
the  chronicles  of  the  Jewish  kings,  or  the  his- 
tories of  the  Israelitish  people.  Transfer  it  to 
the  book  of  Samuel,  give  names  to  the  father 
and  sons,  think  of  it  as  a  historical  occurrence 


BIVIKE  PARABLES.  7 

and  what  is  changed  by  the  transference?  The 
object  and  purpose  of  its  insertion  in  the  his- 
toric Word,  were  it  found  there,  would  still  be 
the  same  as  of  its  insertion  in  the  Lord's  dis- 
course. Its  exquisite  portraiture  of  the  ten- 
derness of  Divine  love  toward  human  way- 
wardness would  be  the  same,  and  the  same, 
too,  the  progressive  development  of  its  lessons 
to  man's  expanding  consciousness. 

Has  it  never  occurred  to  you  that  since  the 
parables,  with  their  spiritual  contents,  are  so 
often  historic  in  form,  that  therefore  those  nar- 
rations of  the  Holy  Scriptures  which  are  his- 
toric in  form  may  be  parables  in  reality,  with 
an  equally  important  spiritual  significance  ? 
The  proud  King  Saul,  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  the  men  of  Israel,  standing  in  fear 
with  his  armies  before  the  giant  of  Gath,  and 
finally  delivered  by  the  youthful  David,  the 
ruddy  shepherd-boy  from  the  fields  of  Beth- 
lehem— is  it  any  less  a  parable  than  the  story 
of  the  lost  sheep,  or  the  marriage  of  the  king's 
son,  in  the  Gospels  ?  The  touching  story  of 
Absalom,  caught  by  his  hair  in  the  branches 
of  the  oak,  may  be  the  veriest  history,  but  it 
is  no  less  a  parable  than  the  story  of  the  Prod- 
igal. They  contain  the  same  elements,  and 
serve  the  same  ends ;  they  appeal  to  the  hu- 


8  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

manity  of  the  simple  and  the  spiritual  intui- 
tions of  the  wise,  and  present  their  varied 
lessons  to  the  varied  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men. 

I  desire  to  commend  to  you  this  doctrine  : 
That  the  Bible  is  a  book  of  Divine  Parables ; 
its  early  portions  are  allegory ;  its  historical 
records  a  vast  drama  enacted  by  living  men  as 
types  of  spiritual  things,  with  the  redemption 
and  regeneration  of  man  for  its  subject.  The 
advent  of  the  Lord,  His  sufferings,  His  death, 
His  gospel,  can  thus  be  seen  to  be  in  harmony 
with  this  drama,  which  embraces  the  Deity, 
and  represents  the  states  of  every  living  soul. 
The  Word,  teaching  us  thus,  becomes  at  once 
spiritual  in  its  subject,  in  its  importance,  and 
in  its  style ;  and  is  taken  out  of  the  arena  of 
controversial  criticism,  and  let  out  to  the  high- 
er faculties  of  man  for  investigation  and  devout 
contemplation.  Simple  as  this  doctrine  is, 
catholic  as  it  is  to  the  wisest  thought  of  the 
church  in  primitive  and  modern  times,  I  am 
unwilling  to  trust  it  to  the  fate  of  a  plausible 
conjecture,  and,  therefore,  ask  your  attention 
to  some  of  the  evidences  of  its  truthfulness. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  number  of 
persons  who  feel  themselves  obliged  to  doubt 
whether  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from  God, 


DIVINE  PARABLES,  9 

daily  increases.  There  may  be  more  than  one 
such  among  you  ;  and  while  there  are  consid- 
erations which  might  be  helpful  to  such  minds, 
which  I  am  obliged,  by  the  limits  of  this  dis- 
course, to  omit,  I  wish  it  distinctly  understood 
that  I  regard  such  doubts  neither  with  disre- 
spect nor  sentiments  of  hopeless  pity.  They 
seem  to  me,  in  a  certain  sense,  natural  to  the 
time,  and  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  de- 
clining spirituality  of  the  doctrine  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  Church.  The  doctrine  con- 
cerning the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  which 
is  currently  promulgated  in  this  day  is  untrue; 
and  interpretations  are  taught  which  it  were 
better  to  disbelieve.  But  because  the  Ptole- 
maic astronomy  is  exploded,  is  there  no  longer 
a  solar  system  and  a  starry  heaven  ?  Surely, 
the  rejection  of  a  false  theory  of  revelation 
need  not  necessarily  lead  to  denial  of  the  exis- 
tence of  revelation.  It  should  rather  turn  the 
mind  to  investigation,  and  dispose  it  affirma- 
tively toward  the  doctrine  which  announces 
more  rational  claims. 

1.  I  begin  then  with  recalling  a  truth  which 
seems  to  be  well  based  in  human  experience ; 
Man^s  religious  instincts  lead  him  to  look  for 
and  seek  a  revelation  from  God.  The  con- 
sciousness of  a  mind  and  life  which  is  an  enig- 


10  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

ma  to  himself;  the  universal  intuition  of  God, 
which  no  man  loses  till  it  is  blanketed  by  his 
own  fallacious  reasonings  ;  these  two  felt  facts 
call  for  revelation  from  God  to  man  concern- 
ing himself,  and  God's  will  with  respect  to 
him.  There  are  powers  and  faculties  of  the 
human  mind  w^hich  are  not  brought  into  exer- 
cise by  an  exclusive  determination  of  thought 
to  this  world  of  the  senses,  which  will  exercise 
themselves  with  the  problems  of  existence,  and 
duty,  and  destiny.  These  faculties  may  be 
more  or  less  developed,  but  at  every  stage  of 
their  activity  they  demand  a  knowledge  differ- 
ent from  that  which  the  senses  can  give.  They 
feel  their  fitness  for  a  world  of  thought  which 
the  senses  do  not  dirctly  open,  and  they  crave 
its  revelation.  The  skeptic  as  to  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures,  if  he  have  still  preserved 
the  intuition  of  God  and  the  hope  of  immor- 
tality, will  tell  you  how  much  he  desires  a  rev- 
elation in  which  heart  and  mind  may  repose, 
with  confidence  and  certainty.  Many  a  mind 
chased  by  the  phantoms  of  doubt;  many  a 
heart  tired  of  following  after  the  fantasies  of 
sense,  is  crying  to-day  in  your  very  midst: 
"  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brooks, 
so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God."  Even 
atheism  acknowledges   the  want   in  ceaseless 


DIVINE  PARABLES,  11 

attempts  and  incessant  activity  to  disprove  it. 
Men  do  not  raise  armies  and  keep  incessant 
watch  and  ward  against  nothing ;  and  the 
very  struggle  which  unbelief  keeps  up  from 
age  to  age,  is  virtually  an  acknowledgment  that 
the  human  heart  needs,  yearns  for,  and  is  capa- 
ble of  believing  in,  a  Divine  Eevelation. 

2.  Now  reflect  that  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
claim  to  be  such  a  revelation,  and  from  age  to 
age  have  made  good  their  claim  to  countless 
multitudes.  It  is  sometimes  denied,  I  know ; 
but  so  is  the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  and  so  is 
the  beauty  of  art  denied  by  those  who  have  no 
eye,  and  the  grandeur  of  music  by  those  who 
have  no  ear,  and  the  blessedness  of  brotherhood 
by  those  who  have  no  love.  The  facts  remain; 
over  all  the  Scriptures  is  written  the  name  of 
them,  like  the  name  on  the  vesture  of  Him 
whom  John  saw  in  vision,  "The  Word  of 
God."  It  is  the  distinct  and  specific  claim  of 
Moses,  and  the  prophets,  and  the  Evangelists, 
that  God  spake  unto  them,  and  that  what  they 
have  written  is  His  Word.  The  claim  is  plain- 
ly there ;  it  is  either  true  or  it  is  not.  I  con- 
fess a  great  deal  of  respect  for  the  old  argu- 
ment that  the  effect  of  these  Scriptures  upon  the 
mind  and  life  of  the  disciple  is  strong  presump- 
tion in  favor  of  their  claim.     Those  who  are 


12  DIVIJSrJEJ  FABABLES. 

really  affected  by  the  Scriptures  perceive  in 
them  a  power  far  transcending  that  which  is 
felt  in  any  other  writing,  and  such  facts  of  ex- 
perience are  not  to  be  ignored.  The  simple 
literal  meaning  of  a  verse  by  no  means  accounts 
for  the  impression  it  may  produce.  There  are 
religious  faculties  in  us  all,  that  respond  with 
fear  or  hope  to  the  statutes  and  commands,  the 
warnings  and  promises  of  Holy  Scripture,  even 
though  intellectually  we  profess  to  believe  them 
the  product  of  men  in  past  time  ;  there  is  a 
Divine  power  in  them  which  has  asserted  itself 
to  every  generation  for  ages. 

3.  Consider,  then,  in  view  of  what  the 
Scriptures  claim  to  be,  the  Word  of  God,  whether 
they  can  possibly  be  such  without  containing 
the  mind  of  God  in  spiritual  truths  utterly 
distinct  from  that  which  appears  in  the  gram- 
matical construction  of  the  letter.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  a  large  part  of  the  Bible  claim- 
ing to  be  the  Word  of  God,  is  not  the  Word 
of  God  to  us  unless  indeed  it  be  uttered  in  para- 
ble and  contain  secrets  within  its  bosom  ready 
to  be  unfolded  to  the  teachable  mind.  But  could 
any  of  it  be  the  Word  of  God  without  a  spir- 
itual sense  within  the  letter?  Eationally  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  a  Divine  truth  descend- 
ing into  the  language  of  men,  and  taking  to 


DIVINE  PABABLES,  13 

itself  an  expression  in  such  language  without 
the  mediation  not  of  one  only  but  of  many 
distinct  series  of  ideas.  If  the  Scriptures 
really  treated  in  their  letter  in  all  its  parts 
of  love  and  faith,  of  the  Divine  Character  and 
human  duty,  of  that  which  bears  directly  upon 
man's  spiritual  life,  and  those  subjects  concern- 
ing which  alone  he  needs  a  revelation,  it  is  in- 
conceivable that  such  teaching  could  be  given 
by  God  to  man  without  containing  spiritual 
arcana,  distinct  from  the  series  of  natural  ideas 
composing  the  letter.  Every  writing  has  the 
author  in  it ;  all  that  there  is  in  his  mind  con- 
cerning the  subject  is  involved,  and  possible 
therefore  to  be  evolved.  Thought  clothes  it- 
self in  speech  ;  and  abstract  intellectual  truth 
clothes  itself  with  the  images  of  sensuous 
thought  before  it  can  put  on  a  garment  of  lan- 
guage. All  our  ideas  are  derived  in  the  first 
instance  from  impressions  of  phenomena ;  and 
the  images  of  these  become  not  only  the 
basis  of  subsequent  thoughts,  but  their  ap- 
propriate sign  and  expression.  Our  intellec- 
tual conceptions,  which  are  born  on  the  one 
side  of  sensuous  impressions,  must  on  the  other 
hand  think  themselves  out,  or  clothe  them- 
selves with  sensuous  images,  before  they  can 
find  expression.     How  then  shall  truth  divine, 


14  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

transcending  the  faculties  of  sense,  communi- 
cate itself  in  the  language  of  menr  without  first 
investing  itself  with  angelic  ideas,  and  then 
with  corresponding  natural  images  ?  The  ob- 
ject of  such  a  communication  being  to  make 
known  things  which  "  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 
ear  heard,  nor  have  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man  to  conceive,"  the  human  mind  w^ould  be 
incapable  of  apprehending  them,  except 
through  the  medium  of  sensuous  representa- 
tives and  corresponding  signs.  The  language 
of  a  Divine  Revelation  must,  therefore,  from 
the  nature  of  its  message,  be  parabolic.  Even 
its  natural  images  of  moral  righteousness  can 
be  only  images  of  spiritual  graces  and  Divine 
perfections.  But  much  of  the  letter  of  Scrip- 
ture treats  of  specific  events,  and  is  limited  in 
its  application  to  the  occasion  past.  It  does 
not  treat  of  such  subjects  as  man  needs  to  have 
revealed.  How  then  can  it  be  the  Word  of 
God,  as  it  claims,  unless  it  is  also,  as  it  claims, 
'*  settled  forever  in  the  heavens?" — unless  it 
contains  an  internal  meaning  which  is  appre- 
hensible to  angelic  intelligence,  or  spiritual 
thought?  Possessing  at  least  two  distinct 
series  of  ideas,  as  it  must  thus  do  to  be  the 
Word  of  God,  it  is  parabolic  in  reality,  and 
spiritual  in  its  object,  and  eternal  in  its  inter- 


UiritERSITT] 
DIVINE  J^Aff4J&L^sm  ^y 

est.  Whether  couched  in  IB^^uiiuntfTegory, 
history,  precept,  or  prophecy,  the  Word  must 
have  the  regeneration  of  man  for  its  one  great 
object.  The  variety  of  its  immediate  subjects 
must  have  been  selected  as  adapted  to  its  sin- 
gle object,  the  spiritual  instruction  of  man- 
kind ;  and,  therefore,  whether  its  form  be  al- 
legory or  history,  must  be  determined  by  the 
adaptability  of  one  or  the  other  to  secure  the 
attention  and  fix  the  interest  of  men  in  time, 
but  whether  one  or  the  other,  it  must  contain 
the  secrets  of  spiritual  wisdom  in  truths  which 
could  not  be  spoken  without  a  parable. 

This  we  believe,  that  the  AVord  of  the  Lord 
is  so  written, and  that  the  Bible  is  thus  a  book 
of  Divine  Parables,  plenarily  inspired  by  vir- 
tue of  the  informing  wisdom  through  which 
as  a  medium,  the  very  spirit  of  God  vivifies 
even  the  letter  of  its  myths,  its  histories,  its 
statutes  and  its  promises.  Its  inspiration  and 
divineness  are  not  acquired  by  the  miraculous 
mode  of  its  composition,  and  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  infallibility  of  its  science,  or  its 
history,  or  the  personal  purity  of  its  charac- 
ters; but  by  the  indwelling  spirit  of  God,  and 
Divine  spiritual  truth  from  Him.  The  inspi- 
ration of  the  writers  of  the  Scriptures  was  tem- 
porary, and  for  a  specific  purpose;   the  inspi- 


16  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

ration  of  that  which  was  written  is  eternal. 
It  is  the  indwelling  mind  of  God  and  Divine 
truth  from  Him  in  all  its  gradations.  It  is 
this  eternal  and  perpetual  inspiration  of  truth 
in  the  Scriptures  themselves  which  constitutes 
them  the  Word  of  God;  which  makes  them 
reach  beyond  the  necessities  of  the  occasion  on 
which  they  were  given  ;  and  by  virtue  of  which 
they  furnish  food  for  the  angels  in  heaven  as 
well  as  men  on  earth.  The  Word  in  its  "  be- 
ginnings "  or  first  principles,  is  "  with  God  " 
and  "  is  God  ;  "  but  to  make  itself  apprehen- 
sible to  finite  minds,  it  must  clothe  itself  with 
garments  woven  from  the  fibers  of  angelic  and 
human  thought,  constituting  a  spiritual  and 
a  natural  sense,  to  suit  the  states  respectively 
of  angels  and  of  men. 

When  men  on  earth  rejected  Him  who  was 
the  Word  made  flesh,  they  divided  His  coat, 
and  found  a  vesture  woven  from  the  top 
throughout  without  a  seam.  This  essential 
Word  appearing  as  the  Son  of  Man,  clothed 
with  an  inner  garment,  and  over  this  an  outer 
robe,  pieced  and  seamed,  represents  the  Word 
which  is  the  Divine  truth  itself,  clothed  in  the 
vesture  of  angelic  wisdom,  which  constitutes  the 
spiritual  sense  of  our  written  Bible,  and  over 
this  the  outer  garment  of  its  letter,  pieced  from 


DIVINE  PARABLES,  17 

the  contributions  of  human  myth  and  history, 
that  could  serve  the  Word  of  life  for  clothing. 
And  like  the  Lord's  vesture,  which  it  really  is, 
the  inner  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word  is  woven 
throughout  without  a  seam ;  while  men  dispute 
and  divide  the  letter,  the  vesture  of  angelic 
wisdom  constitutes  one  harmonious  serial  and 
continuous  garment  of  light.  Amid  all  the 
difficulties  which  beset  literal  criticism  and  the 
doubts  which  overhang  natural  thought,  this 
glorious  fabric  of  spiritual  truth  awaits  man's 
faculty  of  perception.  It  may  appear  with 
greater  or  less  clearness  as  men  are  more  or  less 
instructed  concerning  it.  The  more  spiritual- 
ly-minded the  reader  the  deeper  and  fuller  will 
be  his  perception  of  such  spiritual  signification. 
The  deeps  in  his  own  soul  w^ill  answer  back  to 
the  deeps  in  God's  word.  Space  and  time  and 
person  will  recede  in  the  contemplation  of  Holy 
Scripture,  and  spiritual  principles,  and  states, 
and  progression  of  state  will  become  the  subjects 
of  thought.  He  who  thus  looks  in  God's  Word 
for  that  which  is  the  subject  of  faith,  can  real- 
ize its  histories  in  his  own  mental  progressions. 
He  may  learn  the  stages  of  his  regeneration  in 
the  story  of  creation  ;  the  Divine  evolution  of 
spiritual  faculties,  affections  and  thoughts,  from 
the  chaos  of  the  natural  mind.  He  can  read 
2 


18  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

the  processes  of  his  Spiritual  growth  in  the 
journey  of  Israel ;  be  instructed  by  the  Law 
in  his  pilgrimage,  and  enter  the  heavenly 
Canaan  under  the  leadership  of  a  higher 
Joshua.  A  greater  than  David  can  give  him 
the  possession  of  Mount  Zion ;  and  a  more 
glorious  King  than  Solomon  build  within  him  a 
more  glorious  temple. 

4.  I  ask  now  your  attention  to  the  testimony 
of  Scripture,  mid  the  tradition  of  the  Church, 
to  the  truth  of  this  doctrine.  The  present 
troubles  of  dogmatic  orthodoxy  have  arisen 
from  ignoring  the  primitive  doctrine  of  the 
Word,  and  insisting  upon  its  literal  sufficiency 
and  infallibility,  unmindful  of  the  numerous 
instances  in  the  Bible  in  which  that  Word  is 
asserted  to  be  figurative,  typical,  a  collection 
of  parables.  1.  We  continually  find  the 
Scriptures  themselves  in  their  very  letter, 
directing  the  reader  to  elevate  his  rnind  above 
the  merely  literal  expression — above  the  nat- 
ural ideas  and  images  which  compose  its  out- 
ward language,  and  to  explore  the  truly  Divine 
wisdom  that  is  contained  within.  *'Open  Thou 
mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  the  wondrous 
things  out  of  thy  law."  "The  law  of  the 
Lord  is  perfect ;  converting  the  soul."  Per- 
fect in  the  infinitude  of  its  significance;  and 


DIVINE  PARABLES.  19 

the  universality  of  its  adaptability  to  man's 
need!  Worthy  of  God  and  suited  to  man! 
"Give  ear,  My  people,  to  My  law;  incline 
your  ear  to  the  words  of  My  mouth.  I  will 
open  My  mouth  in  a  parable ;  I  will  utter 
dark  sayings  of  old."  Then  follows  the  sum- 
mary of  the  history  of  Israel ;  and  what  must 
we  infer  if  not  that  the  whole  history  is  one 
vast  parable;  that  it  was  overruled  by  Divine 
Providence  so  that  it  might  be  a  parable;  that 
because  it  was  such  a  parable  it  was  therefore 
written;  that  because  parabolic  of  spiritual 
things  it  has  been  preserved ;  that  because 
those  spiritual  things  have  permanence  and  re- 
lation to  ourselves  they  may  therefore  be  opened 
to  us?  "  History  is  philosophy  teaching  by  ex- 
ample," says  Napoleon ;  but  this  is  more.  It  is 
spiritual  phi  losophy  teachi  ng  by  sy  mbols — a  Di- 
vine drama;  God  the  arranger  of  the  types,  His 
object  the  spiritual  instruction  of  His  children, 
the  tribes  of  Israel  and  their  enemies  only  the 
dramatis  personce  on  the  natural  stage  of  ex- 
terior life,  playing  symbolic  parts,  and  leaving 
their  memories  and  their  deeds  pregnant  types 
for  universal  man.  A  literal  people,  repre- 
senting the  spiritual  people  of  God ;  their  his- 
tory, the  progressions,  trials  and  conflicts,  the 
triumphs  and  failures  of  the  soul.     "  It  is  the 


20  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

spirit  that  quickeneth  (saith  the  Lord);  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing ;  the  words  I  speak 
unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life." 
"  O  fools  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  (he  said,) 
ought  not  Christ  to  have  suflPered  these  things 
and  to  enter  into  His  glory  ?  And  beginning 
at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  he  expounded 
to  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  con- 
cerning Himself."  2.  The  Apostles  recog- 
nized this  character  of  Holy  Scripture.  They 
declare  that  the  deluge,  the  ark,  and  Noah 
and  his  sons,  are  "figures,"  types  ;  the  "  Jews 
after  the  flesh  "  were  but  types  of  the  "  Jews 
after  the  Spirit ; "  the  tabernacle  and  its  cere- 
monies were  but  "symbols  of  the  true;"  Jerusa- 
lem below  the  type  "  of  Jerusalem  that  is 
above,  the  mother  of  us  all ;"  the  earthly  Zion 
the  figure  of  the  "  Mount  Zion,  that  city  of 
the  living  God,  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem ;" 
Abraham  and  his  two  sons  were  "  an  allego- 
ry ;"  Melchisedec  the  type  of  Christ,  and  so 
were  the  high  priests.  3.  The  Fathers  in  the 
primitive  church  developed  the  idea  to  great 
lengths.  Mosheim,  himself  an  opponent  of 
allegorical  interpretation,  is  compelled  to  con- 
fess that  it  was  predominant  in  the  early  cen- 
turies of  the  church. 

Indeed,  no  truth  of  history  is  more  certain 


DIVINE  PARABLES.  21 

than  this :  that  for  fourteen  hundred  years  few 
who  received  the  Scriptures  at  all  ever  thought 
of  denying  that  they  contain  mysteries  in  their 
bosom,  which  do  not  appear  upon  their  sur- 
face. In  the  first  three  centuries  the  men 
most  renowned  for  piety  and  erudition  "all 
attributed  a  double  sense  to  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture, the  one  obvious  and  literal,  the  other  hid- 
den and  mysterious,  which  lay  concealed  as  it 
were  under  the  veil  of  the  outward  letter. 
The  former  they  treated  with  the  utmost  neg- 
lect, and  turned  the  whole  force  of  their  genius 
and  application  to  unfold  the  latter."  In  the 
following  ages  of  the  church  it  is  true  that 
some  were  dissatisfied  with  the  interpretations 
which  had  been  given  by  others,  but  the  ex- 
istence of  a  spiritual  sense  was  not  denied, 
nor  the  principle  of  allegorical  interpretation 
abandoned.  It  prevailed  with  such  constancy 
and  predominance,  down  even  to  the  fifteenth 
century,  as  to  justify  Bishop  Home  in  stating 
"  that  such  spiritual  method  did  universally 
prevail  in  the  church  from  the  heginningr 
The  value  of  such  figurative  interpretations  as 
were  thus  furnished  to  the  church  is  not  the 
matter  on  which  I  would  insist,  but  the  cath- 
olicity of  the  doctrine  of  "  a  double  sense."  In 
proportion  as  this  doctrine  is  denied,  faith  in 


aa  DIVINE  PAYABLES, 

the  inspiration  of  Scripture  has  declined.  In 
the  ratio  of  men's  belief  that  the  literal  sense 
of  Scripture  is  its  only  sense,  have  they  denied 
that  it  is  the  Word  of  God.  If  it  contains  no 
Divine  and  spiritual  sense  distinctly  within  the 
letter,  large  portions  of  it  cannot  be  Divine  in 
any  sense.  Its  mistakes  in  science  and  his- 
tory destroy  its  claims  to  infallibility  as  sci- 
ence and  history  ;  its  contradictions  are  incon- 
sistent with  its  divine  origin,  except  there  be 
an  underlying  harmony ;  and  much  of  it  is  so 
obscure  in  its  figures  as  to  elude  all  the  laws 
of  rhetorical  interpretation.  The  fundamental 
principle  of  modern  Biblical  criticism  is,  that 
"  Scripture,  like  other  books,  has  one  meaning 
— the  meaning  which  it  had  to  the  mind  of  the 
Prophet  or  Evangelist,"  and  "no  second  or  hid- 
den sense  different  from  that  which  appears  upon 
the  surface."  From  which  it  follows :  1.  That 
it  has  no  Divine  sense  at  al],  unless  that  be  the 
same  as  human  sense.  2.  That  much  of  the 
only  sense  which  is  contained  in  Scripture  is 
non-sense.  This  is  very  different  from  the 
faith  of  St.  Paul,  who  says,  "  our  sufficiency  is 
of  God,  who  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers 
of  the  New  Testament;  not  of  the  letter,  but 
of  the  spirit;  for  the  letter  killeth,  but  the 
spirit  giveth  life."     The  Fathers  followed  a 


DIVINE  PABABLES.  23 

better  principle  when  they  said,  "  the  law  of 
God  is  spiritual,  and  they  have  not  the  true 
law  who  do  not  take  it  spiritually ; "  and 
"  that  the  true  meaning  of  the  sacred  writers 
was  to  be  sought  in  the  sense  which  is  within 
the  letter." 

In  the  development  of  this  subject,  I  should 
be  obliged  next  to  present  and  consider  the 
chief  objection  to  the  admission  of  a  spiritual 
sense  in  the  Scriptures,  namely,  the  absence  of 
uniformity  among  the  interpreters  ;  the  great 
danger  of  vagaries  of  our  own  being  foisted 
upon  or  pretendedly  drawn  from  them — the 
lack  of  any  rule  of  consistent  interpretation. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  this 
objection  applies  with  equal  force  to  the  gos- 
pel parables  themselves,  which  are  commonly 
esteemed  to  be  the  most  perfect  form  of  Divine 
teaching.  It  no  more  applies  to  the  difficulties 
and  dangers  of  spiritually  interpreting  the 
narratives,  which  are  historical  in  form  and 
parabolic  in  reality,  than  it  does  to  those  con- 
fessed parables  which  are  the  matchless  mir- 
rors of  spiritual  wisdom.  The  difference  is 
only  one  of  degree,  not  of  kind.  The  objec- 
tion, however,  is  a  valid  one,  and  if  the  spirit- 
ual sense  of  Holy  Scripture  dwells  in  its  histo- 
ries as  in  its  parables,  there  must  be  some  law 


24  DIVINE  PABABLES. 

of  its  inhabitation,  which  being  known,  would 
serve  as  a  rule  of  accurate  interpretation. 

We  must  leave  the  subject  here  at  this  time, 
with  a  promise.  In  my  next  lecture  I  shall 
endeavor  to  show  that  there  is  an  exact  law  of 
Correspondence  between  spiritual  principles  and 
natural  phenomena ;  that  in  this  law  all  lan- 
guage has  its  origin  and  all  symbolism  its  ex- 
planation ;  that  the  Scriptures  are  divinely 
given  in  accordance  with  it,  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  becomes  a  key  to  their  heavenly 
secrets. 

Meanwhile,  I  wish  to  leave  with  you,  if  I 
may,  an  impression  of  the  importance  just  now 
of  determining  the  world's  thought,  away  from 
the  sensual  criticism  that  can  never  enlighten 
but  only  confuse  and  extinguish  faith.  It 
seems  to  me  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
faith  in  the  plenary  divine  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures  should  be  established  in  reason  and 
based  in  intelligence  ;  and  I  admit  indeed  that 
this  can  never  be  realized  till  the  old  natural- 
istic doctrine  of  historical  and  literal  infallibil- 
ity is  destroyed ;  and  I  admit  further,  that  his- 
torical criticism  is  rapidly  and  effectually  ac- 
complishing that  result.  But  when  you  have 
razed  your  old  crazy  habitation  you  have  not 
built  your    new   home.     There  is  positive  as 


DIVINE  PARABLES.  25 

well  as  negative  work  to  be  done;  construction 
must  follow  upon  destruction.  And  it  seems 
to  me  time  that  men  were  encouraged  to  build 
a  positive  faith  in  spiritual  truth  as  revealed 
from  the  Lord.  Such  a  structure  of  faith  can 
only  be  permanent,  indeed,  as  it  is  found- 
ed upon  rational  doctrine;  but  a  first  and  pres- 
ently important  exercise  is  the  determination 
of  thought  to  divine  ideals.  Leaving  those 
things  which  are  behind,  press  forward  to  those 
things  which  are  before ;  reach  out  to  those 
grand  universal  spiritual  truths  which  shine 
with  the  clearness  of  the  day-spring  in  nu- 
merous places  through  the  veil  of  the  written 
Word,  and  resting  in  these,  search  for  their 
illustration  in  the  disguises  of  Scripture  history 
and  prophecy  and  song.  Jewish  history  and 
Mosaic  cosmogony  is  unworthy  of  your  immor- 
tal vocation,  but  search  rather  for  the  wisdom 
of  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  illustrations  of  spir- 
itual experience  in  the  "  parables  "  and  "  dark 
sayings  of  old."  The  trials  of  skepticism,  the 
deeper  skepticism  which  overwhelms  the  heart 
in  the  daily  struggles  of  life  when  God  seems 
a  myth  and  Providence  a  cheat,  the  clouds  of 
sense  which  close  in  upon  us  now  and  again 
like  the  shades  of  eternal  night;  these  can  only 
be  dissipated  by  lifting  our  thought  up  into  the 


26  DIVINE  PARABLES. 

clearer  air  of  spiritual  contemplation  and  look- 
ing for  divine  instruction  on  the  other  side,  that 
is,  the  inside  of  the  Divine  Parables  of  Eden, 
and  Canaan,  and  Egypt,  the  history  of  Israel, 
the  life  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  the  vision  of 
the  Seer  of  Patmos.  Believe  me,  that  as  the 
Scriptures  are  thus  analyzed  the  function  of 
criticism,  important  as  it  has  been,  will  pale; 
and  the  obscurities  of  doubt,  dark  as  they  may 
be,  will  lift ;  and  the  inquiries  of  faith,  sincere 
as  they  are,  will  yet  transcend  what  it  hath  en- 
tered into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive.  God 
and  heaven  close  into  these  sacred  parables, 
and  as  thought  is  determined  from  what  is  in- 
cidental and  dead  in  itself,  the  gates  will  open 
into  the  heavenly  places  which  reflect  the  coun- 
sels of  God.     Amen ! 


II. 


THE  DOCTEINE  OF  COEEESPOS"D- 

ENOE:  A  KEY  TO  DIVINE 

PAEABLES. 

Who  is  worthy  to  open  the  book  and  loose  the  seals  thereof? 

— Rev.V:  2. 

There  are  two  questions  which  must  inevit- 
ably come  to  the  front  in  the  theological  dis- 
cussions of  the  near,  future;  one  respecting 
the  Person  of  God :  the  other  the  existence 
of  a  Word  of  God.  In  regard  to  the  first, 
the  old  theistic  argument  may  for  a  time  be 
successfully  opposed  to  speculative  atheism, 
but  it  will  never  prove  satisfactory  to  its  advo- 
cates, because  the  God  which  it  postulates  is. 
unknown.  If  there  be  a  God,  the  first  likely 
hypothesis  is,  that  He  shows  Himself  exactly 
to  instruct  mankind;  and  the  aspiration  of 
theism  to  a  creed  of  God,  must,  in  proportion 
as  it  is  earnest,  search  for  Him  where  per- 
haps He  may   be  found,  in  those  Scriptures 

which  claim  to  be  a  revelation  from  Him. 

(37) 


28         ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION . 

Thus  discussion  must,  ultimately,  pass  over  to 
the  question  as  to  the  existence  of  a  Word  of 
God ;  and  the  real  question  here,  is  not  as  to 
the  truth  of  the  science  or  history  in  the  Bible, 
but  as  to  the  existence  of  a  Spiritual  Sense 
from  which  it  is  divinely  inspired  and  holy 
in  every  part.  The  Bible  considered  in  its 
letter,  and  from  its  letter  alone,  does  not 
justify  the  expectations  which  men  have  a 
right  to  base  upon  its  claim.  This  has  been 
clearly  and  repeatedly  admitted  in  the  past, 
and  is  the  present  boast  of  literal  criticism. 
"  If  we  who  profess  Christianity,"  said  Dr. 
Wordsworth,  *'  do  not  recognize  the  life-giving- 
virtue  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Old  Testament,  we 
cannot  expect  to  retain  the  letter  of  the  Old 
Testament;  we  shall  soon  lose  our  belief  in  its 
unity,  integrity,  veracity  and  inspiration." 
The  prediction  has  been  verified.  There  is  no 
intelligible  and  definite  belief  in  either  Old  or 
New  Testament  as  in  any  real  sense  the  Word 
of  God;  neither  indeed,  can  there  be,  unless 
the  Bible  be  a  book  of  Divine  Parables  con- 
taining a  distinct  series  of  spiritual  truths  re- 
lated to  the  ideas  of  the  letter,  as  the  soul  of 
man  to  his  earthly  body.  If  this  be  denied  in 
the  Church,  what  it  calls  the  Word  of  God 
must  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Critics,  whose 


LAW  OF  INTERPRETATION',         29 

method  is  to  wrap  it  in  the  grave-clothes  of 
literalism,  with  the  fragrant  spices  of  a  few 
fine  compliments  on  its  venerable  character,  '*as 
the  manner  of  the  Jews  is  to  bury."  No  ex- 
pedients can  prevail  to  ward  off  this  issue.  In 
the  "  battle  between  the  Word  of  God  and  the 
Critics"  the  real  question  should  be  distinctly 
presented.  Does  the  Bible  contain  an  internal 
spiritual  sense  distinct  from  the  letter?  If 
not,  it  will  be  taken  away  from  the  Church 
altogether;  nothing  can  save  it.  If  it  does, 
there  must  be  some  law  of  its  inhabitation, 
which  being  known  would  serve  as  a  rule  of 
accurate  interpretation. 

Without  any  sort  of  doubt,  the  master  posi- 
tion in  this  controversy  belongs  to  that  doctrine 
which  shall  not  merely  assert  the  existence  of 
a  sj^iritual  sense  in  the  Bible,  but  prove  itself 
able  to  expound  it.  The  existence  of  a  spirit- 
ual sense  has  been  ably  asserted  in  the  past; 
but  the  want  of  an  adequate  and  consistent 
rule  of  interpretation,  the  consequent  liability 
to  see  ones  own  vagaries  and  fancies  in  the 
mirror  of  Scripture,  and  to  mistake  them  for 
its  genuine  spiritual  truths,  has  always  been 
urged  as  an  objection  to  the  doctrine.  The 
objection  has  indeed  much  force,  unless  it  can 
be   shown  that  there  is  a  law  of  Inspiration 


30         ZAW  OF  INTEBPRETATIOJSf. 

which  may  be  known  and  studied  as  a  rule  of 
interpretation.  The  results  of  the  spiritual 
methods  of  interpretation  which  have  more  or 
less  prevailed  in  the  Church  from  the  beginning, 
have  been  of  unequal  value,  depending  upon 
the  clearness  of  the  interpeter's  perception. 
"These  secrets  of  divine  Scripture  we  trace  out 
as  we  may,"  confesses  Augustine;  "one  more 
or  less  aptly  than  another,  but  as  becomes 
faithful  men  holding  this  much  for  certain, 
that  not  without  some  kind  of  foreshadowing 
were  these  things  done  and  recorded  in  the 
Word;  and  that  to  Christ  only,  and  His  church, 
the  city  of  God,  are  they  to  be  referred  in  every 
instance."  Wanting  a  strict  rule  of  interpre- 
tation these  men  were  dependent  upon  their 
insight  which  was  more  or  less  clear  in  the 
ratio  of  their  sympathy  with  divine  and  spirit- 
ual realities.  Wonderful  things  they  have 
seen  indeed,  almost  justifying  Ruskin's  saying, 
that  "the  Seers  of  the  world  are  greater  than 
its  thinkers."  But  if  this  be  true  at  all,  it 
must  be  true  because  there  is  a  reality  and 
order  in  what  they  "see,"  capable  of  being 
known,  analyzed,  and  brought  within  the  field 
of  systematic  thought.  What  poets  and  Seers 
perceive,  the  thinkers  will  doubtless  sometime 
reduce  to  science  and  doctrine.     All  spiritual 


ZAW  OF  INTERPBETATIOIsr,        31 

interpretation  of  Scripture  has  assumed  that 
there  is  an  analogy  between  the  visible  and  in- 
visible worlds;  that  "the  systems  of  both  worlds 
run  parallel,"  as  says  an  old  writer,  "  so  that 
the  realities  in  the  superior  have  their  respec- 
tive shadows  in  the  inferior,  and  are  fitly  repre- 
sented by  them."  The  perception  of  this  anal- 
ogy has  heretofore  depended  upon  the  faculty 
of  imagination  and  spiritual  insight;  but  if  it 
should  be  discovered  that  it  is  based  in  a  law 
of  creation,  that  it  is  accurate  and  susceptible 
of  analysis,  reducible  in  fact  to  the  terms  of 
rational  thought,  then  would  the  study  of  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  word  be  based  in  the 
clearest  rational  induction. 

This  we  affirm  is  discovered  in  the  Science 
of  Correspondence  which  is  revealed  for  the 
Church,  and  by  which  it  may  be  demon- 
strated that  Holy  Scripture  is  so  written  that 
each  expression  corresponds  to  a  distinct 
spiritual  idea,  and  that  the  series  of  these 
constitute  its  divine  content  and  inspiring 
soul. 

There  is  a  relation  of  some  sort  existing 
between  the  objects  of  the  natural  universe 
and  the  subjects  of  the  spiritual  universe,  the 
things  seen  by  man  and  the  thoughts  and 
affections  of  man.     Of  this  the  least  reflect- 


32         ZAW  OF  INTERPBETATION, 

irig  must  be  convinced.  While  common  sense 
looks  at  things,  or  visible  nature,  as  real 
and  final  facts,  imagination  sees  in  them  the 
reflection  of  our  faculties  and  states  of  affec- 
tion and  thought,  and  uses  them  as  types  or 
words  for  the  expression  of  these.  Man  sees 
himself  in  the  mirror  of  the  world.  He  be- 
holds his  cunning  in  the  fox,  his  courage  and 
daring  in  the  lion,  his  innocence  in  the  lamb 
and  dove,  his  intelligence  in  the  horse,  his 
stubbornness,  or  as  the  case  may  be,  liis 
patient  endurance,  in  the  ass,  his  sensuality  in 
the  swine.  It  is  as  though  each  single  faculty 
of  his  own  mind,  raying  forth  from  him, 
had  embodied  itself  as  the  characteristic  fea- 
ture in  some  animal  form;  requiring  thus  the 
whole  circuit  of  the  animal  kingdom  to  stand 
as  the  embodiment  and  representative  of  his 
affections.  He  beholds  his  changing  moods 
in  tree  and  flower,  and  the  entire  round  of 
phenomena.  Daylight  and  darkness,  storm 
and  calm,  sunshine  and  cloud,  have  all  their 
perfect  counterpart  in  the  changing  states  of 
the  human  soul,  which,  when  it  would  de- 
scribe its  own  secret  workings,  points  to  these 
outward  and  visible  movements  of  dumb 
nature  as  the  most  expressive  symbols  and 
shadows   of  itself.      All   language   is   based 


ZA  W  OF  INTERPRETATION^,         33 

upon  this  intimate  relation  between  the  inner 
world  of  the  human  soul  and  the  outer  world 
of  natural  phenomena.  Even  the  abstract 
terms  of  language,  used  purely  to  express  the 
relations  of  intellectual  ideas,  are  derived  from 
names  of  sensible  things  and  their  relations. 
We  8ee  truth,  we  hear  laws,  we  weigh  argu- 
ments, we  have  mental  tastes.  We  are  in- 
flamed with  passion,  and  chilled  by  antipathy; 
we  warm  to  a  subject,  and  are  cool  toward  the 
disagreeable.  We  find  reproaches  cutting 
and  bitter;  our  feelings  are  lacerated  by  sting- 
ing sarcasms,  and  we  are  melted  into  tenderness 
by  soft  compassion.  What  men  value  as 
substance  has  thus,  as  Emerson  says,  a  greater 
value  as  symbol.  "The  whole  world  is  thor- 
oughly anthropomorphised  as  though  it  had 
passed  through  the  mind  of  man  and  taken 
his  mold  and  form;  the  huge  heavens  and  earth 
are  but  a  web  drawn  around  us,  the  light, 
skies  and  mountains,  are  but  the  painted  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  soul." 

The  doctrines  of  the  New  Church  show  that 
these  relations  and  suggestions  are  founded, 
not  in  fancy  but  in  fact,  in  a  universal  law  of 
Creation.  The  law  is  this :  that  the  whole 
scheme  of  sensible  things  is  created  by  Divine 
Influx  through  the  spiritual  world;  the  beings 


UFIVBRSITT 


34         ZAW  OF  INTEBPBETATION. 

and  objects  of  the  spiritual  world  standing 
thus  in  the  position  of  mediate  or  secondary 
causes,  which  are  imaged  and  represented  in 
their  effects.  This  relation  between  spiritual 
causes  and  natural  effects  we  call "  Correspond- 
ence;" anything  in  this  world  of  the  senses 
being  said  to  "correspond"  to  the  spiritual 
cause  in  the  world  of  souls  through  which  it  is 
created  or  produced.  I  dislike  exceedingly 
to  import  philosophical  terms  into  popular 
discourse;  but  to  grasp  this  idea  with  clear- 
ness and  accuracy,  the  mind  must  carefully 
distinguish  between  discrete  and  continuous 
degrees.  Current  theology  shuts  its  eyes  to 
all  such  terms ;  and  current  science  makes  no 
such  distinction;  and  the  expounders  of  both 
are  likely  to  declare  their  indifference.  But  let 
him  who  would  be  wise  learn  to  think  accu- 
rately. There  are  continuous  degrees  which 
exhibit  gradation  on  the  same  plane ;  as  greater 
or  less  degree  of  light,  or  heat,  or  pressure. 
So,  likewise,  there  is  greater  or  less  degree  of 
clearness  in  intelligence  or  understanding ;  or 
greater  or  less  facility  of  expression  in  speech. 
These  degrees  exhibit,  however,  only  differ- 
ences of  continuity  on  the  same  plane.  But 
the  degree  which  distinguishes  the  understand- 
ing from  the  speech  is  discrete  and  not  eon- 


ZAW  OF  USTTJEBPEETATIOm        35 

tinuous.  The  thought  does  not  shade  off  into 
the  expression.  It  may  be  more  or  less  clear 
on  its  own  plane,  and  the  expression  may  be 
more  or  less  clear  on  its  plane ;  but  the  planes 
are  distinct,  and  that  which  distinguishes 
them  is  a  discreet  degree.  The  thought  decends 
into  the  speech  and  clothes  itself,  and  takes  on  a 
new  form  and  function  on  a  lower  plane  of 
existance,  without  losing  its  own  form  and 
function  in  the  mind  itself.  It  is  the  efficient 
cause  of  which  the  speech  is  the  effect.  The 
thought  is  spiritual,  the  speech  is  natural. 
They  belong  to  correlated  planes  of  existence,  • 
which  do  not  shade  off  one  into  the  other,  but 
are  discrete  and  distinct.  Such  is  the  relation 
of  a  spiritual  cause  to  its*  natural  effect ;  such 
the  relation  of  the  soul  to  the  physical  body ; 
and  such  the  relation  of  the  spiritual  world 
to  the  natural  world.  The  spiritual  world 
is  in  the  physical  world,  and  principles 
are  in  phenomena,  not  as  one  box  is  in 
another,  or  an  ether  in  a  vessel,  but  as  the 
soul  is  within  the  body  ;  corresponding  part 
to  part  and  function  to  function,  yet  wholly 
distinct  and  discrete  as  to  their  planes  of  exis- 
tence. Thus  God  creates  the  human  soul  as 
the  recipient  of  His  Divine  love  and  wisdom, 
and  beholds  in  it  His  image ;  and  through  the 


36         ZA  W  OF  INTERPBETATION. 

soul,  as  a  form  receptive  of  His  life,  He  creates 
the  body,  and  in  this  again  the  soul  beholds 
its  image.  But  the  soul  is  not  God,  nor  is  the 
body  the  soul.  They  are  related  only  by 
Correspondence;  but  this  relation  is  organic 
and  inherent.  In  the  body,  therefore,  as  to  its 
form  in  general  and  in  particular,  and  as  to  its 
gestures  and  play  of  expression,'  the  soul  may 
behold  its  own  functions  and  its  varied  activ- 
ities— its  understanding  in  the  eye,  and  intel- 
lectual perception  in  the  function  of  the  eye ; 
the  will,  with  its  complex  emotions,  in  the  func- 
tions of  the  heart,  and  its  quickened  feelings 
in  the  quickened  pulse.  This  is  Correspond- 
ence. As  the  soul  and  body  thus  correspond, 
so  do  the  principles  and  objects  of  the  whole 
world  of  souls  correspond  with  the  things  and 
movements  of  the  external  world  of  the 
senses. 

If  there  be  any  such  relation,  so  organic 
and  necessary  as  to  render  the  external  world 
of  the  senses  a  mirror  of  the  soul,  and 
of  the  love  and  wisdom  of  God,  it  is 
manifest  that  a  Science  of  Correspondence 
is  possible;  that  is,  a  specific  and  sys- 
tematic knowledge  of  these  relations,  and 
the  significance  of  things.  Such  a  science  the 
doctrines  of  the  New  Church  offer  in  evidence, 


ZAW  OF  INTEBFBETATION,        37 

and  appeal  to  its  completeness,  consistency 
and  adequacy  as  an  explanation  of  the  Word 
and  Works  of  God.  I  am  aware,  of  course, 
that  there  are  those  who  are  called  wise  who 
would  object  to  this  doctrine  on  the  ground 
that  it  rests  upon  an  assumption  that  is  not  in 
the  nature  of  things  provable.  For  while  the 
natural  world  has  from  the  beginning  fur- 
nished man  with  images  and  representatives 
of  his  mental  processes,  there  has  been  no 
well-based  recognition  of  this  truth  that  they 
are  effects  of  spiritual  causes.  Man  has 
rather  sought  to  emerge  from  the  confusion 
of  his  sensible  ex{)erience  by  ascribing  the 
phenomena  of  nature  to  all  sorts  of  imaginary 
causes,  as  atoms  and  motion — none  of  which, 
however,  he  supposes  to  be  discernible  by  any 
of  his  senses,  which  only  take  cognizance  of 
the  sensations  excited  by  such  supposititious 
atoms  of  matter.  Strange  it  seems,  that  those 
who  have  been  so  loud  in  denying  a  God, 
because  his  existence  was  not,  as  they  deemed, 
susceptible  of  demonstration,  should  also  have 
been  most  positive  in  maintaining  the  exist- 
ence of  elemental  matter  which,  upon  their 
own  showing,  is  equally  incapable  of  detection, 
let  alone  demonstration.  The  intuition  of 
God  has,  however,  a  wonderful  basis  in  human 


38         ZAW  OF  INTERFBETATION, 

nature;  and  when  men  shall  turn  their 
thoughts  to  Him  as  the  perpetual  source  and 
center  of  all  substantial  being,  whose  out- 
flowing life,  by  the  medium  of  the  spiritual 
world,  creates  and  sustains  the  entire  Cosmos 
of  sensible  phenomena,  then  the  law  of  Cor- 
respondence will  be  seen  as  a  grand  and  com- 
prehensive generalization,  covering  fields  of 
study  that  have  not  been  dreamed  of  in  our 
philosophy. 

The  knowledge  of  the  correspondence  of 
heaven  with  earth,  was  the  intuitive  posses- 
sion of  the  men  of  the  most  ancient,  or  Adamic, 
dispensation,  and  was  r,etained  as  a  science,  and 
taught  by  tradition  long  after  that  dispensation 
of  the  Church  had  closed.  The  Divine  Mind 
with  its  treasures  of  love  and  wisdom,  was  to 
their  preception  written  out  in  the  forms,  colors, 
motions,  sizes,  distances,  and  their  endless 
variations  in  the  Kingdoms  of  nature.  They 
needed  no  written  Revelation,  "  for  the  invisi- 
ble things  of  God  were  clearly  seen  from  the 
Creation  of  the  world,  being  understood  by  the 
things  that  are  made."  The  Apostle  express- 
ly says  that  men  originally  thus  "knew  .God," 
but  ceasing  "  to  glorify  him  as  God,"  and  be- 
coming vain  in  their  imaginations,  they  grad- 
ually lost  this  knowledge,  and  their  hearts  were 


ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION.        39 

darkened.  And  as  man  lost  the  intuitive  per- 
ception of  correspondence,  he  fell  into  the 
lower  mental  state  of  merely  believing  on  the 
authority  of  tradition,  that  such  and  such  ob- 
jects had  such  and  such  signification.  The 
knowledge  of  Correspondence  being  thus, 
preserved  as  a  science  and  transmitted  by  tra- 
dition, served  as  a  basis  for  the  reception  and 
understanding  of  a  written  Word  of  God  ;  un- 
til its  spiritual  uses  were  prostituted  to  pur- 
poses of  magic,  and  the  night  of  idolatry  set  in, 
when  men  worshipped  the  shadow  instead  of 
the  substance.  I  shall  speak  again  more  fully 
of  this  matter  in  tracing  the  history  of  Eeve- 
lation;  sufiice  it  to  say  now,  that  it  was  prima- 
tively  the  origin  of  all  language,  and  in  its 
perversion  gave  rise  to  the  fanciful  mythologies 
of  the  ancient  nations,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  Word  of  God  is  given  strictly  in  accordance 
with  it,  and  is  now  opened  in  its  spiritual  sense 
by  means  of  it. 

It  is  enough  to  ask  for  this  doctrine  that  it 
be  examined  as  a  hypothesis.  Every  theory 
is  in  supposition  till  it  demonstrates  its  ability 
to  explain  the  facts  it  assumes  to  cover.  We 
must  admit  the  possibility  provisionally  or  we 
cannot  proceed.  This  is  common  to  all  inves- 
tigations in  which  a  hypothesis  is  undergoing 


40         ZAW  OF  INTERPR  ETATION. 

trial,  or  a  theory  proof,  or  a  truth  demonstra- 
tion. And  this  doctrine  of  the  internal  sense 
of  Scripture  as  the  essential  revelation,  and 
the  myth,  or  history,  or  law  as  its  assumed 
body  in  the  world,  submits  itself  to  be  tried  by 
the  usual  methods  for  verifying  a  hypothesis. 
It  is  not  an  arbitrary  system,  or  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  new  dogma  for  an  old,  but  assumes 
to  rest  upon  a  law  of  being,  and,  therefore,  to 
be  capable  of  examination  and  verification. 
Whether  there  is  such  a  spiritual  sense  in  the 
Scriptures  as  is  claimed,  is  therefore  mainly  a 
question  of  fact.  No  one  can  tell  whether  it 
is  there  or  not  until  he  examines  them  under 
the  guidance  of  the  principles  offered,  just  as 
he  would  investigate  any  claim  of  science  by 
an  examination  of  the  facts  under  the  guidance 
of  the  hypothesis  proposed. 

We  are  mainly  concerned  with  the  doctrine 
at  this  time,  as  a  principle  of  interpretatioH, 
and  I  shall  proceed  to  offer  some  illustrations 
of  its  application.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  this  Science,  which  is  to  furnish  us  with 
the  alphabet  and  grammar  for  the  study  of 
the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  is  not  to  be 
grasped  and  mastered  in  a  moment.  It  is  no 
merely  speculative  and  visionary  theory,  but 
a  truly  consistent  and  universal  system,  or  it 


ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION'.        41 

is  nothing.  The  presentation  which  I  have 
given  of  its  fundamental  principles  is  the 
merest  statement,  and  an}^  illustrations  which 
can  be  crowded  within  the  limits  of  this  dis- 
course will  be  necessarily  crude.  It  will  be 
easily  admitted  by  most  persons  that  there  is 
some  sort  of  analogy  or  resemblance  between 
mental  and  physical  things,  as  between  heat 
and  affection,  and  between  light  and  truth, 
which  common  language  continually  expresses; 
and  many  will  feel  that  in  passing  beyond  the 
bounds  of  this  moderate,  common-sense  use  of 
analogy,  we  plunge  into  folly  and  mysticism. 
I  am  required  to  caution  you  against  any  such 
conclusion,  for  the  claims  of  this  Science  are 
either  true  or  they  are  not,  and  they  are  alto- 
gether too  pretentious  to  be  set  aside  by  a 
hasty  inference.  The  doctrine  is  explicit : 
God  speaks  the  Word  from  Himself  as  by 
real  efflux  He  makes  all  things  from  Himself; 
and  the  whole  external  world,  the  work  of  God, 
presents  there  a  basis  for  the  spiritual  interpre- 
tation of  Holy  Scriptures,  the  written  Word 
of  God, — the  external  objects,  events,  and  im- 
agery of  which  the  letter  is  composed  corres- 
ponding with  the  spiritual  principles,  which 
are  their  organic  causes,  the  series  of  which 
constitute  its  spiritual  sense.     Written  accord- 


42         ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION. 

ing  to  correspondence  with  the  exactness  of  a 
law,  by  the  knowledge  of  the  law  it  may 
be  interpreted  with  the  accuracy  of  a 
Science.  In  rough  statement  as  a  rule  of  in- 
terpretation the  law  may  be  formulated  thus: 
That  the  things  signified  hear  the  same  rela- 
tion and  subserve  the  same  uses  in  respect  to 
the  soul,  as  do  their  natural  representatives 
in  respect  to  the  body.  What  the  eye  is  to 
the  body,  the  understanding  is  to  the  soul ; 
and  when,  therefore,  it  is  said  "  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  run  to  and  fro  through  the  whole  earth," 
His  Omnipresence  and  Providence  by  virtue 
of  His  wisdom  and  understanding,  is  the 
Spiritual  meaning.  We  are  taught  to  pray, 
"Open  thou  mine  eyes  that  I  may  behold 
wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law,"  when  the 
enlightening  of  the  understanding  in  the 
truths  of  the  Word,  is  meant.  "  Let  thine 
eye  be  single,"  or  "if  thine  eye  offend  thejo 
pluck  it  out,"  is  to  warn  us  against  the  duplic- 
ity of  a  perverted  understanding,  and  the 
necessity  of  putting  away  from  us  those  false 
principles  which  cause  us  to  offend  against  the 
truth.  What  the  ear,  in  like  manner  is  to 
the  body,  the  will  as  a  faculty  of  perception 
and  obedience  is  to  the  soul.  Wherefore  our 
Lord's  words  so  often  repeated,  "  He  that  hath 


ZAW  OF  INTEBPRETATIOm        43 

ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear,"  mean,  whosoever 
perceives  the  Divine  command  let  him  obey. 
The  unregenerate  will,  which  is  averse  to  learn- 
ing and  obeying  the  Divine  Truth,  is  de- 
scribed as  the  "uncircumcised  ear,"  which 
"cannot  hearken;"  and  it  is  said  "the  Word 
of  the  Lord  is  unto  them  a  reproach  ;  they 
have  no  delight  in  it."  The  hands,  as  instru- 
ments of  bodily  energy,  denote  the  ability  of 
the  soul;  and  the  "Arm  of  the  Lord"  is  His 
Divine  Omnipotence;  the  "right  hand  of  God" 
is  the  power  of  His  love,  and  the  protection  of 
His  Providence  is  described  by  the  "Ever- 
lasting Arms."  So  the  feet,  as  the  support  of 
the  whole,  denote  the  lowest  principles  of  the 
mind  and  its  precepts  of  life;  wherefore, 
**  washing  the  feet"  signifies  the  purification 
and  reformation  of  conduct,  and  "walk- 
ing in  the  Lord's  paths"  denotes  actual 
external  obedience  to  the  literal  commandments 
of  righteousness.  Bread,  as  the  food  of  the 
body,  represents  the  Divine  goodness,  or  right- 
eousness, for  which  man  should  hunger;  and 
it  is  said  "man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God,"  because  man  is  not  to  yield 
merely  to  the  impulses  of  goodness,  but  is  to 
regulate  these  by  the  Divine  truth,  which  is 


44         ZAW  OF  INTEBPRETATION. 

the  form  of  Divine  goodness,  and  which  can 
alone  build  up  the  soul  in  righteousness. 
Therefore  the  Lord  who  was  the  Word,  made 
flesh,  is  "the  living  bread  which  came  down 
from  Heaven,"  whose  "flesh  is  meat  indeed 
and  whose  blood  is  drink  indeed,"  being  the 
actual  sensible  manifestation  of  His  Divine 
Goodness  and  Truth ;  and  therefore  the  Lord 
is  really  present  in  the  Holy  Supper,  because 
the  bread  and  wine  correspond  to  His  "  flesh 
and  blood,"  which  we  veritably  eat  when  we 
appropriate  His  Goodness  and  Truth  into  our 
souls.  This  is  felt  by  every  worthy  Commu- 
nicant, and  is  intuitively  perceived  and  known 
by  many.  But  the  law  is  universal,  and  applies 
as  well  to  the  other  Sacrament  of  Baptism  ;  its 
whole  efficacy  is  founded  in  the  Correspondence 
of  water  and  washing,  and  its  perception  in 
heaven.  Water  is  in  its  various  uses,  what 
truth  is  to  the  soul.  Thus,  water  in  baptism  or 
washing,  corresponds  to  truth  purifying  the 
soul;  water  as  drink,  to  truth  refreshing  and 
nourishing  the  intellect ;  water  as  rain,  to  those 
divine  truths  of  living  consolation  which  fall 
upon  the  parched  soul  as  dew  from  heaven  ; 
running  waters,  to  truth  seen  and  accepted  as 
flowing  from  its  divine  source ;  stagnant  water, 
to  truth  cut  off  from  its  source  ;  foul  and  bit- 


ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATIONT.        45 

ter  waters,  to  truth  perverted  and  profaned  ; 
and  water  collected  in  seas,  corresponds  to 
the  vast  ocean  of  external  truth,  or  mere 
science  in  the  memory,  gleaned  by  the  senses 
from  the  things  that  appear,  which  accumu- 
late it  as  we  may,  still  remains  but  a  vast  sea, 
heaving,  tossing  and  leading  no  whither;  but 
which  rightly  employed  is  a  vast  storehouse 
from  whence  the  sun  of  love  for  wisdom  may 
lift  up  into  the  mental  firmament  the  supplies 
to  feed  "the  rivers  that  run  among  the  hills," 
the  living  streams  of  truth  which  bless  and 
fertilize  the  mind,  in  the  channels  of  whose 
thoughts  they  flow. 

Such  analogies  may  impress  you  as  the  very 
reverse  of  exact ;  but  it  is  not  true.  They 
are  general  and  superficial,  as  I  have  presented 
them ;  but  the  exactness  lies  in  this,  that  not 
only  these  general  meanings,  but  the  more 
specific  and  definite  shades  of  meaning  which 
belong  to  these  symbols,  are  of  universal  ap- 
plication. The  key  fits,  whether  applied  in 
Genesis,  or  Isaiah,  or  the  Gospels,  or  the 
Apocalypse.  Swedenborg  by  means  of  it, 
and  under  Divine  illumination,  opened  the 
Spiritual  Sense  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  and 
of  the  Apocalypse,  and  in  the  course  of  his 
writings  applies  it   to  the  various  portions  of 


46         ZAW  OF  INTEBPBETATION , 

Holy  Scripture,  with  a  fullness  and  consis- 
tency of  results  which  is  the  best  test  of  its 
truth.  It  is  to  these  results  we  appeal,  and 
upon  a  knowledge  of  these  that  we  base  our 
faith.  It  is  the  key  that  fits.  Applied  to 
texts,  the  meaning  of  which  is  perfectly  clear 
in  the  letter,  it  reveals  a  spiritual  meaning 
within  them,  full  of  beauty,  simplicity,  and 
wisdom,  which  was  before  sealed  and  hidden. 
Applied  to  obscure  passages,  that  in  their 
letter  teach  no  doctrine  that  applies  to  human 
duty  and  righteousness,  it  will  show  hidden 
within  them  riches  of  wisdom,  of  universal, 
useful  application.  Applied  to  contradictory 
texts,  it  will  show  their  real  harmony  under 
their  apparent  contradiction,  and  make  one 
to  complement  and  fulfill  the  other.  All  this 
has  been  demonstrated  in  the  expositions  of 
the  Church,  and  the  demonstrations  are  capa- 
ble of  unlimited  multiplication.  Examine 
in  illustration,  the  declaration,  "  By  the  Word 
of  the  Lord  were  the  heavens  made."  Nothing 
can  be  clearer  in  the  literal  sense  than  this 
general  truth,  that  the  Lord  is  the  Creator  of 
the  Universe:  but  it  concerns  us  much  more 
to  know  how  the  heaven  of  angels  is  created 
and  the  kingdom  of  heaven  implanted  in  the 
soul.     It  is   for  this  surely   that  we  need   a 


ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION.        47 

Revelation  from  God,  and  to  this,  these  words 
in  their  spiritual  sense  must  refer.  Creation 
signifies  spiritual  creation  or  regeneration  ;  the 
"  Word  of  the  Lord"  denotes  all  Divine  Truth, 
by  which  He  who  is  love  itself  reveals  Him- 
self and  His  laws  to  man  ;  and  "  the  heavens" 
signify  that  celestial  state  of  man's  soul  which 
is  implanted  and  formed  by  regeneration. 
Thus  we  are  taught  that  it  is  by  the  Word  of 
the  Lord,  or  the  divine  truths  which  He 
reveals  to  man,  that  His  heaven  of  peace  and 
righteousness  is  created  within  us,  even  as  at 
the  first.  When  the  Lord's  Word  says,  "  Let 
this,  or  let  that,  be !"  "  Do  this,  or  shun  that !" 
then  if  it  is  so,  if  we  do  what  He  commands, 
light  will  appear  in  our  darkness,  a  firmament 
in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  all  living  things  of 
heavenly  life,  the  image  of  God  and  heaven 
itself  in  the  soul.  For  a  mere  record  of  fact 
in  the  letter,  we  have  in  the  spiritual  sense  a 
living  lesson  and  promise  for  every  soul  who 
is  asking  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  And 
can  we  not  see  that  such  an  interpretation,  in- 
stead of  discrediting  the  letter  as  some  seem  to 
fear,  really  glorifies  it  as  the  soul  glorifies  the 
body?  Or  again,  take  the  expression  of  trust: 
"  I  will  call  upon  God,  and  the  Lord  shall  save 
me."     In  the  letter  it  conveys  only  a  general 


48         ZA  W  OF  INTERFRETA  TION, 

truth,  but  in  its  spiritual  sense  a  most  specific 
discrimination  as  to  the  Divine  operation  in 
the  salvation  of  man.  Every  name  applied 
to  designate  the  Lord,  has  a  most  distinct  sig- 
nification in  respect  to  man.  Thus  the  name 
"God,"  designates  the  Lord,  with  respect  to 
His  wisdom  and  power,  the  Lord,  that  is,  as 
revealed  to  the  intellect ;  and  while  man  loves 
evil  and  self  above  all  things,  he  cannot  other- 
wise apprehend  the  Lord.  He  can,  in  his  un- 
regenerate  state,  only  call  upon  "  God,"  because 
he  can  only  understand  the  Divine  as  revealed 
by  His  power  and  truth  to  the  intellect;  but 
"  Jehovah  shall  save  him."  For  the  name 
"Jehovah"  signifies  the  Lord  as  to  that  love 
which  is  the  very  life  and  being  of  God,  and 
though  God  first  appears  to  us  as  the  Divine 
Truth,  it  is  Divine  Love  that  must  save  us- 
Wlien  we  call  wpon  God,  the  Lord  shall  save 
us;  or  when  we  trust  in  the  Lord's  power  and 
truth,  and  obey  His  Divine  Commandments, 
we  shall  realize  that  He  is  Life,  and  rejoice  in 
His  salvation. 

If,  then,  these  plain  declarations  of  the  letter 
of  Scripture  reveal  a  spiritual  meaning  within 
them,  so  full  of  practical  beauty  and  use,  how 
much  more  shall  we  need  the  help  of  this 
Science  of  interpretation  in  that  large  portion 


LAW  OF  INTEBPBETATION,         49 

of  the  Word  which  is  wholly  obscure?  "  The 
mountains  skipped  like  rams,  and  the  little 
hills  like  lambs/'  "Let  the  floods  clap  their 
hands  ;  let  the  hills  be  joyful  together  before 
the  Lord."  Such  figures  not  only  indicate  in 
general  the  life  and  joy  which  should  animate 
the  mind  receptive  of  love  and  faith,  but  they 
specifically  and  precisely  correspond  to  par- 
ticular and  definite  states  of  the  mind.  These 
may  indeed  be  figures,  but  they  are  more  than 
figures;  and,  as  every  one  knows,  there  are 
symbolic  expressions  in  all  parts  of  the  Word 
which  cannot  be  interpreted  by  any  rhetorical 
rules  of  speech.  In  illustration,  I  will  cite  the 
Sixth  Chapter  of  Revelations,  to  which  the 
correspondence  of  the  horse  will  alone  serve 
as  a  key.  The  horse  is  used  as  a  representa- 
tive of  the  intellectual  faculty  or  understand- 
ing of  man  to  which  it  corresponds;  color, 
whatever  it  be,  denotes  the  quality,  and  the 
rider  or  director,  the  guiding  power  of  the 
mind.  In  the  Apocalyplic  Vision  referred  to, 
the  opening  of  the  first  seal  exhibits  "  a  white 
horse,"  the  symbol  of  purity  of  understanding 
or  faith,  while  "  the  Word  "  rules  in  the  mind, 
crowned  as  its  guide  and  director,  "  going 
forth  conquering  and  to  conquer."  In  this  is 
presented  the  first  state  of  the  church,  pure  in 


50        ZAW  OF  INTEBPBETATION, 

faith  when  the  Word  of  God  prevails.  The 
second  seal  opened  shows  a  red  horse,  repre- 
senting the  deterioration  of  the  understand- 
ing of  truth  from  the  pride  of  intelligence ; 
and  the  Word  becomes  then  a  source  of  con- 
tention and  division.  In  the  opening  of  the 
third  seal  the  horse  is  black,  representing  the 
entire  darkenins;  of  understandins;  in  the 
church,  through  the  influence  of  evil.  The 
power  of  the  Word  has  so  far  declined  that 
"  a  measure  of  wheat  "  and  "  three  measures  of 
barley"  are  sold  for  "  a  penny,"  denoting  the 
low  estimation  in  which  spiritual  good  is  held. 
The  fourth  seal  shows  the  climax  of  decline, 
in  the  "  pale  horse  "  whose  rider  is  "  death." 
The  understanding  is  not  only  darkened,  but 
the  Word  is  perverted ;  the  Divine  Truth, 
which  is  "  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit,"  is  turned 
into  falsity,  "the  sword  of  the  adversary," 
with  power  to  destroy.  Here  the  evil  princi- 
ples of  the  heart  have  prevailed  to  turn  the 
powers  of  the  understanding  into  a  curse. 

Thus  briefly  it  may  be  seen  how  this  Scrip- 
ture, otherwise  meaningless,  becomes  in  its 
spiritual  sense,  an  orderly,  serial  and  instruc- 
tive vision  of  the  successive  decline  of  the 
church  as  to  the  understanding  of  the  Word ; 
while  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  same 


LAW  OF  INTERPEETATIOR.        51 

prophecy,  the  restoration  of  understanding  in 
the  church  is  represented  by  the  white  horse, 
whose  rider  "  is  faithful  and  true,"  clothed  in 
a  vesture  upon  which  is  written  the  name  of 
Him,  The  Word  of  God.  These  illustrations 
are  but  suggestions  of  the  power  and  life  of 
the  Word  in  its  spiritual  sense ;  but  I  shall 
supplement  them  with  other  evidences  in  the 
discourses  to  come. 

One  word  in  conclusion,  as  to  the  importance 
of  this  Science  of  interpretation  with  respect  to 
the  thought  of  our  time.  The  skepticism,  the 
doubt,  the  perplexity  of  our  day,  need  for 
help  not  less  thought,  but  higher — a  rational 
analysis  of  the  whole  character  and  purpose  of 
the  Word.  You  will  discover,  that  when  any 
one,  teacher  or  disciple,  becomes  uncertain  as 
to  the  real  presence  of  a  Divine  message  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  doubtful  of  their  origin  in 
Divine  inspiration,  then  all  his  religious 
thought  becomes  vague  and  uncertain.  If  the 
Church  is  to  revive  with  power,  if  faith  is  to 
continue  ,to  exercise  a  function  in  the  life  of 
man  and  of  society,  the  Word  of  God  must  be 
vindicated,  not  as  history,  but  as  a  world  of 
truth  and  spiritual  law,  with  an  order  and 
harmony  of  its  own,  corresponding  to  the  or- 
der and  harmony  of  the  world  of  science.     This 


52         ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION', 

is  the  purport  of  the  doctrine  of  Correspond- 
ence to  the  Church.  It  resolves  the  Scriptures 
into  their  fundamental  principles,  and  leads 
directly  to  unity  of  faith  in  the  universals  of 
truth  respecting  righteousness.  The  grand, 
universal  principles  of  spiritual  life  are  to  be 
found  in  the  heavenly  senses  of  the  Holy 
Scripture. 

They  are  shadowed  in  its  letter,  it  is 
true,  but  they  are  also  apparently  contra- 
dicted there.  It  is  in  the  generalizations  of 
the  spiritual  senses  that  they  receive  their 
illustration  and  justification;  and  thus  it  is 
here  that  the  great  need  of  our  time  and 
the  great  heart- wish  of  the  best  of  men  are 
met  and  satisfied.  "^ 

It  is  here,  also,  that  partial  and  antagonistic 
views  of  truth  are  seen  to  be  parts  of  an  harmo- 
nious whole,  and  thus  it  is  here  that  freedom 
and  diversity  of  opinion  become  justified  in  the 
seen  and  proven  organic  unity  of  all  truths. 
It  is  here,  also,  that  our  conception  of  Divine 
Kevelation  is  enlarged  to  include  all  Sacred 
Scripture  whereby  God  has  left  Himself  a  wit- 
ness among  every  people  of  the  wor'ld ;  and 
thus  it  is  liere  that  the  argument  against  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible,  drawn  from  the  cor- 
relation of  truth  in  all  the  great  religions  of 


ZAW  OF  INTERPRETATION,         53 

the  world,  receives  its  owq  illustration,  is  ex- 
plained and  turned  to  the  support  of  that  it 
would  overthrow.  Inspiration  doubtless  needs 
to  have  a  wider  definition  than  has  previously- 
been  given  to  it;  but  this  will  be  found  in  the 
spirit  that  quickeneth.  It  is  the  generaliza- 
tions of  science  which  lie  back  of,  and  above 
all  specially  operating  laws,  that  enlarge  our 
conceptions  of  the  universe;  but  the  wide 
knowledge  of  suns  and  systems  does  not  de- 
stroy our  faith  in  the  planet  on  which  our 
feet  rest,  and  into  which  open  our  daily  func- 
tions. Even  so  the  universal  principles  of 
spiritual  life,  which  are  opened  in  the  new  anal- 
ysis of  Sacred  Scripture  show  us  the  deeper 
grounds  of  faith,  and  the  harmony  and  final 
unity  of  all  truths  in  all  religions,  at  the 
same  time  that  they  justify  and  fortify  our 
faith  in  the  least  commandment  of  our  own 
Holy  Bible.  It  is  here  in  the  spiritual  sense 
of  the  Word  that  we  come  to  that  universal 
truth  which  the  best  religious  sense  of  our  day 
is  seeking  to  justify,  that  all  in  every  land 
who  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments,  as 
made  known  to  them,  shall  be  saved  of  him. 
Merely  natural  truth  has  its  limitations ;  it 
is  partial,  and  determined  to  particular  times, 
and  places,  and  persons. 


g4         LA  W  OF  INTEBPJRETATION'. 

This  is  the  nature  of  the  literal  sense  of 
Holy  Scripture  and  of  all  doctrine  derived 
from  it.  It  presents  an  amazing  variety  of 
expression,  partial  and  limited  appearances  of 
truth,  and  seemingly  contradictory  commands. 
The  unity  of  all  these  things  lies  below  the 
surface,  in  the  doctrines  of  the  spiritual  sense, 
which  are  as  true  on  earth  as  they  are  in 
heaven,  in  one  age  as  in  another,  for  one  man 
as  for  another.  Presenting  everywhere  illus- 
trations of  love  to  God  and  love  to  the  neigh- 
bor, as  the  sum  and  substance  of  true  religion, 
in  the  church  and  in  heaven,  the  doctrines  of 
the  spiritual  sense  are  essentially  Catholic  and 
comprehensive;  they  include  and  harmonize 
all  truths,  and  all  expressions  of  truth,  and 
are  destined  therefore  to  dissipate  the  falsities 
which  men  have  derived  from  the  appearances 
of  the  letter  of  Scripture,  to  redeem  the  Church 
from  the  schemes  of  councils,  and  to  restore  it 
in  simplicity  and  unity  of  faith.  Unto  this 
end,  so  we  believe,  "the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of 
Juda,"  even  the  Lord  Himself,  "  hath  prevail- 
ed to  open  the  Book  and  loose  the  seals  there- 
of;" that  "the  Christain  Church  which  is 
founded  upon  the  word,  may  again  revive  and 
draw  breath  through  heaven  from  the  Lord." 
Amen. 


III. 

THE  LAW  OF  DIVINE  IFSPIEA- 

TION ;  OE,  HOW  THE  WOED 

IS  WEITTEK 

It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth.-  John  vi :  63. 

"When  our  Lord,  standing  before  His  dis- 
ciples in  His  Risen  and  Glorified  body,  would 
representatively  show  forth  the  giving  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  **He  breathed  on  them  and  said, 
receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  breathed 
upon  them  because  breathing  was  an  external 
representative  sign  of  inspiration ;  for  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  the  divine  principle  proceeding 
from  the  Lord,  which,  when  it  is  received  by 
man,  is  mentally  or  internally  inspired  into 
his  understanding  and  life.  Even  so,  God 
breathed  into  man  at  the  first,  "  the  breath  of 
lives ;"  and  so  He  continually  inspires  all  men 
by  the  influx  of  His  life.  It  is  this  Holy 
Spirit  or  divine  sphere  proceeding  from  the 
(55) 


56  WHAT  I^  INSFIBATIOJSr? 

Lord  that  "  quickenetb,"  both  the  spirit  of 
man,  and  the  things  that  are  made,  and  the 
Word  that  is  written.  This  breathing  forth 
of  His  Divine  Spirit  is  real  and  actual;  it  is 
the  perpetual  influx  into  angels  and  men  of 
the  truth  of  His  wisdom,  in  which  is  life,  and 
whose  life  is  the  light  of  man.  Coming  to 
man  through  the  angelic  heavens,  and  finding 
a  reception  in  his  will  and  -mind,  it  inspires 
him  with  heavenly  love  and  intelligence  and 
power.  Coming  to  the  Prophet  in  its  divine 
mission,  not  to  the  individual  but  to  heaven 
and  the  church, — with  the  overmastering  pur- 
pose of  revelation,  not  to  the  man  but  to  men, 
— it  fills  him  with  the  prophetic  spirit,  cloth- 
ing itself  in  the  chambers  of  memory,  speak- 
ing through  him  what  it  listeth,  and  recording 
by  his  hand  what  it  will.  Coming  again  in  un- 
ceasing streams  of  life  and  truth  into  that 
Word  which  is  written,  it  vivifies  and  inspires 
the  otherwise  dead  letter,  and  makes  it  to  be 
— not  merely  to  mean,  but  actually  to  be — 
"spirit  and  life." 

In  this  general  statement  you  will  perceive 
the  promise  of  a  more  definite  and  discrimi- 
nating doctrine  of  Inspiration  than  that  which 
is  current.  In  general.  Inspiration  is  the 
influx  of  the   Holy   Spirit  of   Wisdom   and 


WJIAT  IS  INSPIBATIONf  57 

knowledge,  which  gives  light  to  the  human 
understanding,  and  life  to  all  men ;  but  its 
operations  and  results  are  different,  according 
to  the  specific  end  it  seeks,  and  the  conditions 
which  prevail.  We  are  to  make  a  distinction 
between  (a)  the  Inspiration  which  is  common 
to  all  good  men,  and  {b)  the  Inspiration  of 
Prophets  and  Evangelists,  and  (c)  the  Inspira- 
tion of  the  Word  written  through  them.  The 
confounding  of  these  things,  which  are  distinct, 
is  as  hurtful  as  it  is  common  ;  and  we  can  have 
no  true  doctrine  of  the  Inspiration  of  the 
Word  of  God  until  these  distinctions  are  made 
clear. 

1.  Inspiration  can  not  be  understood,  not 
even  the  inspiration  which  is  common  to  all 
men,  excepting  as  life  is  understood;  for  In- 
spiration proceeds  in  all  its  forms  and  under 
all  conditions  from  the  influx  of  Divine  life. 
It  can  not  be  at  all  understood  except  as  we 
apprehend  the  two  fundamental  facts  of  human 
life.  Of  these,  the  first  is,  that  our  life  is 
God's  life,  given  to  us  and  received  by  us. 
The  second  is,  that  the  Divine  life  is  so  given 
to  us  that  it  appears  as  our  own  life,  and  really 
abides  in  us  as  our  own,  and  is  used  as  our 
own,  and  becomes  what  it  is  in  us  by  our  free 
determination.     And  we  may  reconcile  these 


58  WHAT  IS  IJSrSPIBATION? 

two  facts  in  the  single  proposition  :  tliat__inaii. 
is  a  substantial  form,  receptive  of  Divine  life 
JB  such  a  way  that  he  may  voluntarily  use  it. 
The  Lord  is  the  only  life.  He  is  the  cause  of 
causes,  and  by  real  efflux  makes  all  things, 
not  from  nothing,  but  from  Himself;  and  by 
real  and  constant  influx  into  the  things  made 
He  sustains  and  moves  them.  He  is  life  in 
Himself,  and  life  proceeding.  Speaking  truly 
and  absolutely  according  to  the  fact,  there  is 
no  more  self-existent,  independent  life  in  the 
highest  angel,  in  man  nor  animal,  than  there 
is  in  a  block  of  granite.  All  that  is  created, 
all  that  is  not  God,  is  mere  form  and  effect; 
and  the  only  respect  in  which  one  created  form 
differs  from  another  is  wholly  a  difference  of 
form,  or  capacity  to  receive  life  and  determine 
it  to  uses.  All  motion,  all  activity,  whether  of 
planet,  plant,  man  or  angel,  all  thought,  all 
aflection,  is  caused  by  the  influx  of  the  divine 
of  the  Lord  into  forms.  The  life  is  one;  the 
manifestations  differ  with  the  differences  in 
the  receptive  forms.  In  learning  this  funda- 
mental truth,  however,  we  have  not  reduced 
the  mystery  of  life.  Its  manifestations  present 
all  the  variety  that  they  did  before;  we  have 
only  learned  to  refer  this  variety  to  difference 
of  organization.     This  is  a  truth  which  science 


WITAT  IS  INSPIRATION f  59 

in  its  own  way,  and  in  its  own  field,  recog- 
nizes; which  it  applies  in  the  whole  realm  of 
sensible  things.  It  is  the  combination  and 
relation  of  molecules  of  a  definite  structure 
which  constitutes  the  difference  between  char- 
coal and  the  diamond.  It  is  the  combination 
and  relation  of  cells,  of  a  definite  structure 
which  governs  in  the  manifestations  of  plant- 
life,  and,  in  a  still  higher  degree,  in  the  man- 
ifestations of  animal  life.  And  this  relation 
between  the  structure  and  quality  of  sub- 
stances, and  between  the  organic  form  and  the 
quality  of  life  manifested,  is  more  perfectly 
developed  with  advancing  discovery. 

We  shall  be  prepared  to  learn,  then,  what 
science,  from  the  nature  of  its  plane  and 
methods  of  investigation,  could  never  teach 
us ; — that  there  are  spiritual  forms  of  various 
orders  and  degrees,  capable  of  receiving  and 
manifesting  Divine  life  in  love,  intelb'gence 
and  use,  in  the  ratio  of  their  perfection ;  and 
that  man  as  the  complex  of  these,  is  a  spiritual 
organic  form  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God. 
The  doctrines  of  the  New  Church  teach  that 
spirit  is  as  real  and  substantial  as  matter  is, 
but  on  a  prior  and  superior  plane  of  existence. 
It  has  corresponding  attributes*  on  its  own 
plane,  and  is   as   capable   of  organization   as 


60  WHAT  IS  IJSrSPIBATIOJSr? 

matter  is.  The  spiritual  world  is  a  world  of 
spiritual  substances,  organized  in  forms,  capa- 
ble of  variously  receiving  and  manifesting 
spiritual  life.  Man  as  a  spiritual  being,  is  an 
organized  form  of  spiritual  substances,  corres- 
ponding in  functions  with  the  complex  organ- 
ism of  his  physical  body.  He  has  successive 
degrees  or  planes  of  faculties  corresponding 
with  the  successive  degrees  of  Divine  love  and 
wisdom  emanating  from  God,  and  receptive  of 
them;  and  he  has  in  each  a  will  and  under- 
standing receptive  of  love  and  wisdom  as  such; 
and  this  complex  organism  is  so  adjusted  to  the 
reception  of  influx,  that  the  life  flowing  in  ap- 
pears to  be  in  him  as  his  own,  and  becomes  in 
him  voluntary  life.  Divine  life,  which  is  love 
and  wisdom  itself,  flows  into  the  human  will 
as  love  and  there  becomes  the  man's  own,  and 
is  whatever  love,  desire,  affection,  or  impulse, 
good  or  bad,  it  must  become  by  his  own  deter- 
mination of  it  to  ends.  So  it  flows  as  wisdom 
into  his  understanding,  and  there  becomes  what- 
ever of  thought,  opinion,  belief,  or  imagination, 
true  or  false,  it  must  become  by  his  own  use  of 
it.  Thus  man,  as  a  spiritual  being,  is  such  an 
organic  form,  that  life  flowing  in  from  above 
becomes  his  to  use,  and  is  thereafter,  in  the 
will,  and  in  its  activity,  voluntary  life.  Thence 


W^AT  IS  IJSrSFIBA  TI02^  ?  61 

is  man's  freedom;  which  it  is  not'easy  to  define. 
That  he  has  it  we  know ;  and  that  it  is  insep- 
arable from  the  appearance  that  life  is  his  own 
to  do  with  as  he  will,  we  know.  This  appear- 
ance is  the  very  groundwork  of  individuality, 
fundamental  to  all  spiritual  development,  and 
carefully  protected  in  the  order  of  Divine  Prov- 
idence. It  is  a  wonderful  effect  produced  from 
the  fact  that  life  appears  only  where  it  is  re- 
vealed, and  it  is  revealed  only  where  it  is  re- 
acted. It  enters  man  altogether  unperceived> 
because  it  enters  by  his  unconscious  higher  de- 
grees. Those  degrees  previous  to  their  develop- 
ment are  like  the  unoccupied  apartments  or 
stories  of  a  house;  man  does  not  live  in  them, 
nor  has  he  any  practical  knowledge  of  their 
value.  Life  enters  man  by  his  inmost  or  su- 
preme degree,  in  which  not  even  the  celestial 
angels  are  conscious,  and  is  therefore  un per- 
ceived in  its  entrance  and  descent  until  it  comes 
into  the  plane  of  his  conscious  and  voluntary 
life.  This  at  first  is  the  very  lowest  plane  of 
his  natural  faculties;  and  being  there  first 
manifested,  that  appears  to  be  its  origin,  and 
it  appears  to  be  his  own,  and  he  is  free  to  use  it 
as  his  own.  Every  impulse  of  affection  and 
every  thought  of  truth  which  is  inspired  into 
man  is  so  presented  as  to  respect  and  conserve 


62  WHA T  IS  INSPIRATION  f 

this  freedom ;  for,  by  means  of  it  alone  can 
man  acquire  by  his  affections  and  thoughts 
and  deeds,  any  moral  or  spiritual  character 
whatsoever. 

The  Inspiration  of  Divine  life  into  every 
man,  is,  therefore,  of  two  kinds.  First,  im- 
mediate, sustaining  in  him  the  faculty  of  will- 
ing and  thinking ;  and  second,  mediate,  pre- 
senting emotions  and  thoughts  accommodated 
to  his  voluntary  reception.  The  first  com- 
municates the  life  by  which  he  lives,  and  is 
free  to  direct  his  living.  The  second  inspires 
him  with  good  emotions  and  true  perceptions, 
and  thus  assists  his  freedom.  Having  made 
this  distinction,  we  shall  be  prepared  to  see 
something  of  the  nature  and  method  of  that 
inspiration  by  which  every  man  who  will, 
may  rise  into  goodness,  intelligence  and  heav- 
enly usefulness. 

The  Holy  Spirit  of  truth  comes  down 
through  heaven  into  man's  conscious  and 
Yoluntary  life,  and  is  there  presented  as  emo- 
tion and  thought,  which  are  perceived  no 
otherwise  than  his  own ;  because  it  has  been 
finited  and  humanized  by  its  descent  through 
those  who  are  above  man  and  nearer  to  God. 
These  are  the  angels,  who  also  exist  in  suc- 
cessive  heavens,   according    to    the  faculties 


WJB:AT  is  inspiration  ?  63 

which  are  opened  in  them  corresponding  to  the 
discrete  degrees  of  Divine  truth  from  the 
Lord.  Some  are  higher  than  others,  and 
nearer  to  God ;  some  are  lower  and  nearer  to 
man.  Those  who  are  his-hest  and  nearest  to 
God  first  receive  the  Divine  truth  as  it  flows 
forth  from  Him  into  forms  receivable  by 
them.  It  clothes  itself  in  their  minds  with 
thought  and  becomes  their  wisdom ;  and  thus 
mediated  it  is  perceptible  to  angels  lower 
than  the  highest;  and  by  a  similar  process, 
through  the  successive  planes  of  being,  the 
truth  becomes  the  thought  and  wisdom  of 
those  in  the  spiritual  world,  who  are  low- 
est among  the  good  and  wise  there,  and 
nearest  to  man.  In  their  minds  it  has  become 
such  that  it  may  descend  into  the  thought  of 
man,  and  be  given  up  to  his  faculties  and  his 
freedom  to  be  used  as  his  own  thought  and  in- 
telligence. This  is  "  the  light  which  coming 
into  the  world  enlighteneth  every .  man.'' 
From  this  is  all  of  man's  thought,  invention, 
imagination  and  reason,  greater  or  less,  higher 
or  lower,  according  as  he,  in  his  freedom,  re- 
ceives it  and  uses  it.  He  may  turn  it  into 
darkness,  misapply  it,  and  pervert  it  into  fool- 
ishness; or  he  may  receive  it  with  joy,  use  it 
with  diligence,  and  rise  by  its  means  above 


64  WHAT  IS  IJSrSPIBATIOJSr? 

his  ordinary  level  of  preception  and  wisdom. 
It  is  this  inspiration  which  lifts  the  poet  above 
his  knowledge,  and  the  preacher  above  his 
own  wisdom,  and  shows  to  both  worlds  of 
truth  which  they  have  never  explored  in  act- 
ual experience.  It  is  this  insj)iration  which 
fills  the  mind  of  ithe  inventor  with  forms  he 
has  never  seen,  and  enables  him  to  copy  that 
in  his  mind  he  could  never  create  unaided.  It 
is  this  which  illuminates  our  minds  at  all 
times,  combining  new  forms  of  thought,  and 
increasing  our  intelligence  and  wisdom  in  pro- 
portion to  our  dutiful  and  orderly  use  of  it, 
without  compulsion,  freely  and  in  the  full 
sense  that  it  is  our  own. 

This  inspiration  can  only  minister  to  the 
development  of  character  and  latent  possibili- 
ties of  intelligence  as  it  is  thus  freely  received 
and  determined  to  the  uses  of  life ;  and,  there- 
fore, man  is  always  kept  unconscious  of  it  as 
inspiration.  The  nearest  aproach  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  it  which  he  ever  has  is  when  he 
perceives  unwonted  light  and  mental  activity; 
and  then  when  he  reflects  about  it  and  com- 
pares this  illumination  with  his  customary 
obscurity  he  calls  it  inspiration.  That  it  is ; 
and  the  light  of  it  waxes  and  wanes  according 
to  his  voluntary  discipleship  and  obedience. 


WjETAT  IjS  IJSr^PIBATIOJSr  f  65 

2.  But  the  Inspiration  of  Prophets  and 
Evangelists  is  different  from  this.  That  kind 
of  Inspiration  comes  when  the  Divine  wisdom 
flows  into  the  understanding  of  the  man,  but 
does  not  become  his  own.  AVhen  God  would 
reveal  His  truth  in  its  own  correspondent  im- 
ages, He  clothes  it  ^s  before  in  its  descent 
through  the  heavens  of  angels  with  the 
thoughts  and  perceptions  apprehensible  to  them, 
and  thus  accommodated  enters  into  the  under- 
standing of  one  whom  He  has  chosen  for  an 
especial  instrument,  and  of  whom  He  takes 
possession.  The  influent  wisdom,  then,  so  far 
as  its  purposes  require,  uses  the  senses,  the 
mind,  the  memory,  the  thoughts,  the  habits  of 
thinking,  the  beliefs  and  the  imaginations  of 
the  man;  but  uses  them  all  to  eflect  its  own 
purposes.  These  purposes  respect  the  good  of 
men,  and  not  of  the  individual ;  and  the  reve- 
lation is  made,  not  to  him,  but  through  him, 
by  an  Inspiration  that  controls  him.  And  be- 
cause all  lower  and  sensuous  knowledges, 
thoughts  and  images  correspond  to  those  which 
are  higher,  the  influent  wisdom  uses  whatever 
it  finds  in  the  man's  mind  to  express  higher 
and  spiritual  truths.  And  every  thought  and 
word  thus  selected  and  adopted  is  such  as  to 
be   exactly    Correspondent   with    the   divine 


66  WHAT  IjS  IN&PIBATIONf 

truth  within.  So  that  the  form  given  to  the 
truth  in  heaven,  the  thoughts  which  it  put  on 
in  the  minds  of  the  angels,  and  the  senses  in 
which  they  understand  it,  and  the  truth  itself 
as  it  is  in  God,  are  all  within  the  literal  ex- 
pression furnished  from  the  mind  of  the  hu- 
man instrument.  Thus  the  Holy  Scriptures 
were  written,  and  when  the  record  was  made, 
or  any  part  of  the  record  at  any  time,  the 
prophetic  spirit  was  withdrawn,  and  the  pro- 
phet remanded  into  his  own  voluntary  life. 
His  inspiration  was  miraculous,  if  you  please; 
it  was  at  least  special  and  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose, controlled  by  the  will  of  God,  and  not  his 
own  will.  What  he  w]?6te  under  such  Inspi- 
ration is  verily  the  Word  of  God,  and  is  itself 
Inspired. 

3.  This  brings  us  to  speak  of  tlie  Inspira- 
tion of  that  which  is  thus  wintten;  which  is 
too  often  overlooked  because  of  failure  to 
distinguish  between  the  inspiration  which 
is  common  to  all,  and  that  which  is 
peculiar  to  the  sacred  penman.  When  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  spoken  of,  it  is 
commonly  meant  simply  that  thej^  were  writ- 
ten by  inspired  men  ;  and  the  inspiration  of 
the  writers  is  not  regarded  as  different  in  kind 
from  the  inspiration  of  teachers  and  commenta- 


WHAT  IS  INSPIRATION?  67 

tors.  Bat  it  is  different  in  kind ;  and  the  In- 
spiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  a  Divine  fact,  su- 
perior to  either  of  the  other  kinds  of  inspira- 
tion, for  it  is  plenary  and  complete.  If  we 
say,  then,  the  Word  of  God  is  Inspired,  we 
say  what  we  mean — that  the  thing  written  is 
Inspired,  independently  of  the  mind  of  the 
penman  who  wrote  it.  The  Inspiration  of  the 
Word  results  from  the  peculiar  Divine  control 
of  the  writer,  and  consists  in  the  Divine  wis- 
dom it  contains,  which  alone  giveth  spiritual 
life.  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you  they 
are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  This  is  the  real 
principle  of  their  inspiration.  It  does  not  de- 
rive its  Inspiration  from  the  writer,  but  from 
the  Living  AVord  Himself,  who  is  thus  able  to 
impart  to  this  last  and  ultimate  expression  of 
His  truth,  this  letter  of  Scripture  which  may 
be  read  and  heard  of  man,  certain  qualities 
that  make  it  the  basis  and  foundation  of  heaven, 
and  the  means  of  inspiring  all  men  with  light 
divine  and  life  eternal. 

Of  these  the  first  is,  that  this  literal  word 
is  a  body,  a  definite  expression  of  Divine 
wisdom,  and  an  adequate  instrument  of 
Divine  life.  It  is  not  merely  a  writing,  but 
a  creation,  an  emanation  from  God  proceed- 
ing by  discrete  degrees  of  the  spiritual  world 


68  WJIAT  IjS  INSPIBATION  f 

and  the  mind  of  man,  and  res'ting  in  repre- 
sentative histories  and  images,  which  also  by 
its  presence  it  makes  Divine.  Even  that  side 
of  revelation  which  is  formally  human  is  es- 
sentially divine  because  of  the  presence  of  the 
divine  and  spiritual  within  it.  ^'Although  its 
literal  form  is  molded  by  man's  state,  it  is 
not  determined  by  his  will.  The  materials 
for  this  temple  of  the  Divine  presence  have  in- 
deed been  supplied  by  man,  but  its  Maker  and 
Builder  is  God.  The  stones  may  have  been 
rough-hewn  in  the  quarry  of  the  human  mind, 
but  no  sound  of  huni^n  hammer  or  axe  has 
been  heard  in  the  sacred  edifice  while  build- 
ing. No  doubt  the  Scriptures  are  different  in 
their  outward  form  and  appearance  from  what 
they  would  have  been  if  the  state  of  mankind 
at  the  time  had  been  less  degraded.  The  let- 
ter would  then  have  been  a  more  perfect  im- 
mage  of  its  spirit ;  would  have  contained  no 
indications  of  an  angry  God  ;  no  command  to 
slaughter  nations  and  seize  upon  their  herit- 
age; no  sanction  of  concubinage  ;  no  worship 
of  God  by  offering  Him  the  blood  of 
slain  beasts. "  These  things,  however, 
only  show  the  condition  of  those  to  whom 
it  was  first  accommodated ;  and  are  evi- 
dences of  its  perfection,  if  so  be  even  these  con- 


WITAT  IjS  INSPIBATION  f  69 

tain  within  them  a  spirit  as  pure  and  holy 
as  the  most  perfect  form  of  revelation  could 
contain.  We  shall  consider  hereafter  the  prin- 
ciple of  adaptation  and  accommodation  to 
human  states  upon  which  the  letter  of  theWord 
is  necessarily  selected;  but  it  concerns  us  now, 
mainly,  to  observe  that  because  it  is  selected 
through  man  and  not  by  the  will  of  man,  and 
because  whatever  its  outward  appearance,  it  is 
correspondent  with  and  representative  of  the 
truths  of  Divine  wisdom,  it  therefore  necessa- 
rily contains  them  and  is  inspired  by  them. 
It  is  because  it  is  inspired  with  a  distinct 
spiritual  sense  that  its  essential  life  is  able  to 
descend  to  man  while  reading  it  devoutly  in 
the  letter,  and  thereby  to  bring  him  into  con- 
junction with  heaven.  Without  a  spiritual 
sense,  without  the  living  Word  Himself  pres- 
ent, the  written  Word  could  not,  indeed,  have 
this  conjoiniug  power;  but,  inspired  as  it  is, 
its  conjoining  power  is  not  dependent  upon 
man's  ability  to  enter  into  the  spiritual  sense 
by  the  Science  of  Correspondences,  or  any 
other  means  of  mere  study.  It  is  rather  in 
this,  that  as  man  devoutly  reads  the  letter,  the 
angels  enter  into  the  ideas  to  which  the  letter 
corresponds.  The  letter  of  the  Word,  its  his- 
tories,  images,   symbols,   precepts   and  com- 


70  WMAT  IjS  inspiration  f 

mandments,  when  read  by  man  or  entertained 
in  his  thoughts,  forms  in  his  mind  that  basis 
and  foundation  for  heaven  which  his  natural 
mind,  perverted  as  it  is,  could  in  no  other  way 
present  to  the  Lord.  Into  this  orderly  recep- 
tacle the  Divine  influx  of  life  and  spirit,  which 
is  personal  to  every  man,  can  be  imparted, 
and  the  man  be  led  into  vital  communion  with 
angels  and  conjunction  with  the  Lord. 

The  literal  sense  and  the  spiritual  sense  are 
one,  as  body  and  soul,  because  they  corres- 
pond; and  therefore  when  man  devoutly 
reads  the  Word  in  its  letter,  "  internal  truth 
flows  in  and  is  conjoined  with  external,  man 
being  ignorant  of  it."  This  is  the  source  of 
that  peculiar  power  in  the  Word,  of  which 
every  devout  reader  is  sensible,  which  can 
not  be  accounted  for  by  the  ideas  of  the  let- 
ter alone,  and  which,  therefore,  the  infidel 
ridicules  as  superstition.  It  is  by  this  com- 
munion with  heaven,  which  the  Word  effects 
through  its  double  sense,  that  those  occasion- 
al perceptions  of  the  interior  significance  of  a 
simple  story  or  an  obscure  symbol  in  the 
Scriptures,  which  every  humble  student  of 
the  Bible,  as  God's  message,  has  experienced, 
are  effected.  The  influx  of  good  entering 
from  the  Lord  into  the  interiors  of  the  mind, 


WJBTAT  IS  IJSrSPIBATIOJSr  f  71 

inspires  and  gives  life  to  the  truth  which  en- 
ters from  without,  and  becomes  perceptible  as  a 
holy  consolation,  a  refreshment,  an  impulse 
of  good,  a  strengthening  of  faith,  an  illumin- 
ation of  thought.  By  the  method  of  its  com- 
position, and  consequent  inspiration  of  Divine 
wisdom,  so  holy,  so  perfect,  so  exactly  corres- 
pondent with  spiritual  truth,  is  the  letter  of 
the  Word,  that  it  continually  bears  the  life  of 
the  spirit  and  the  bread  of  heaven,  down,  even, 
to  the  natural  man. 

This  power  of  the  Word,  by  virtue  of  its 
double  sense,  to  conjoin  heaven  and  the  church, 
and  bring  down  spiritual  life  and  knowledge 
to  man,  is  a  matter  of  very  great  practical  im- 
portance and  comfort.  But  we  must  not  over- 
look the  great  and  important  use  of  the  spirit- 
ual sense  of  the  Word  as  revealed  and  entered 
into  in  some  degree  by  men  on  earth.  Its 
value,  together  with  the  Science  of  Corres- 
pondence, is  not  in  substituting  a  merely  in- 
tellectual study  of  correspondences  for  the 
devout  reading  and  contemplation  of  the 
Holy  Word  in  its  letter;  for  there  can  be  no 
substitute  with  men  on  earth  for  the  Divine 
Life  and  power  of  truth  in  its  own  Holy  ulti- 
mate. But  the  value  of  the  revelation  of  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Word  is,  first,  that  we 


72  WITAT  JS  INSFIRATIOJSr  f 

may  know  what  Scripture  is  really  Divine 
from  plenary  inspiration ;  and  second,  that  we 
may  have  the  genuine  doctrines  of  truth  by 
which  as  a  lamp  to  read  the  letter.  The  letter 
of  Holy  Scripture  has  been  separated  from  its 
spirit  in  the  Church;  the  very  existence  of  a 
spiritual  sense  has  been  denied;  and  there  is 
consequently  no  vital  doctrinal  belief,  and  very 
little  practical  belief  in  the  Divinity  of  the 
letter.  It  is  when  it  is  so  regarded,  apart  from 
its  Divine  origin,  and  in  its  own  light,  that 
"the  letter  killeth."  What  the  Science  of 
Correspondence  does  for  the  man  of  the 
Church,  therefore,  is,  to  furnish  him  with  the 
internal  evidence  of  the  Divine  Inspiration  of 
the  Word,  and  to  supply  him  with  a  principle 
by  which  to  test  the  Canon  of  the  Word  in- 
dependently of  any  authority  of  tradition. 
Only  that  Scripture  is  plenarily  Inspired 
which  contains  an  internal  sense,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  Correspondence  in  its  application  to 
the  Canon  reveals  what  books  have  such  a 
sense.  These  are  the  five  books  of  Moses, 
Joshua,  Judges,  the  two  books  of  Samuel,  the 
two  of  Kings,  the  Psalms,  all  the  Prophets 
from  Isaiah  to  Malachi,  the  four  Gospels,  and 
the  Book  of  Revelation.  These  books  are 
written  according  to  the  law  of  Correspond- 


WHAT  IS  INSPIRATION  f  73 

ence,  containing  an  internal  sense,  and  effecting 
an  immediate  communication  with  heaven; 
but  the  Epistles  and  other  Scripture,  though 
written  by  inspired  men,  do  not  contain  an  in- 
ternal sense,  and  do  not  claim  to  be  the  Word 
of  the  Lord.  The  inspiration  of  the  Apostles, 
was  inspiration  of  the  kind  that  is  common  to 
good  and  holy  men,  and  their  Epistles  con- 
tain the  doctrine  of  the  Gospels;  but  contain- 
ing no  internal  sense  they  do  not  possess  that 
23lenary  Inspiration  which  belongs  for  instance 
to  the  Gospels  themselves.  If  this  division  of 
the  Canon  seems  to  you  arbitrary,  and  obnox- 
ious to  your  pious  traditions,  I  beg  of  you  to 
remember  that  it  rests  upon  internal  evidences 
which  are  verifiable,  and  that  it  in  no  way  de- 
grades the  Epistles,  but  only  exalts  the  Plena- 
rily  Inspired  Word,  which  is  seen  by  Corres- 
pondence to  possess  an  Internal  Sense.  We 
hold  the  inspiration  of  the  Epistles  and  the 
book  of  Proverbs,  for  example,  as  high  as  any 
doctrine  of  Inspiration  current  in  any  school 
of  theology ;  but  we  place  the  Inspiration  of 
the  Pentateuch,  and  the  books  of  Joshua, 
Judges,  Samuel  and  Kings,  and  the  Psalms,  the 
Prophets  and  the  Gospels,  inconceivably  high- 
er than  any  doctrine  of  the  church  has  ever 
been  able  to  place  it.     The  revelation  of  the 


74  WITAT  IjS  IJSTjSJPIHATIOJV  f 

spiritual  sense  enables  us,  then,  to  know  what 
books  are  the  Very  Word  of  God,  why  and  in 
what  manner  they  are  Divine,  and  that  by 
them  the  Lord  immediately  quickens  the  souls 
of  men.  The  knowledge  of  the  existence  of 
a  spiritual  sense  is  like  a  vision  of  Jacob's 
ladder ;  for  so  do  men  behold  the  Holy  Word, 
its  foot  resting  on  the  earth,  its  top  reaching 
to  heaven,  and  angels  ascending  and  descend- 
ing thereon  between  God  and  the  human  soul. 
"If  man  w^ere* aware  of  the  existence  of  a 
Spiritual  Sense,  and  when  reading  the  Word 
were  to  allow  his  thoughts  to  be  influenced  by 
his  knowledge  of  it,  he  would  come  into  inte- 
rior wisdom,  and  into  a  still  closer  conjunc- 
tion with  heaven,  because  he  would  thus  enter 
into  ideas  similar  to  those  of  the  angels." 

Moreover,  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
churches  have  really  falsified  the  letter  of  the 
Word  by  confirming  its  apparent  truths  as 
genuine  truths ;  they  have  taken  away  "  the 
key  of  knowledge,"  and  perverted  the  genuine 
Divine  truth  which  shines  through  its  letter 
in  places  like  a  face  through  a  veil.  The 
Spiritual  Sense  of  the  Word  was  therefore  re- 
vealed, that  the  man  of  the  Church  might 
have  the  genuine  doctrines  of  truth  as  a  lamp 
by  the  light  of  which  to  read  the  Word  in  its 


WHAT  IS  INSPIRATION?  75 

letter.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  Correspondence, 
and  the  Spiritual  Sense  of  the  Word  as  opened 
by  means  of  it,  are  needed  in  the- Church  for 
the  development  of  a  spiritual  reason  in  man, 
the  cultivation  of  a  rational  faith,  and  the  tri- 
umphant vindication  of  the  Divine  authen- 
ticity of  the  Scriptures;  and  all  this,  if  for 
nothing  else,  that  men  may  approach  the  Word 
of  God  devoutly,  in  prayer  and  faith,  to  re- 
ceive through  its  very  letter  the  spiritual  sus- 
tenance which  flows  down  into  the  minds  of 
those  who  so  approach  it. 

Another  quality  which  is  given  to  the  letter 
of  the  Word,  by  its  inspiration  and  dictation, 
is  that  the  truths,  or  appearances  of  truth,  in 
the  letter,  are  expressed  "  in  such  a  way  that 
the  simple  may  understand  in  simplicity, 
and  the  wise  in  wisdom.''  In  many  places,  for 
example :  anger,  wrath  and  vengeance  are  at- 
tributed to  the  Lord ;  and  it  is  said  that  He 
punishes,  casts  into  hell,  tempts,  and  such  like 
things.  He  who  believes  this  in  simplicity, 
and  on  that  account  fears  God  and  guards 
himself  from  sin  against  Him,  will  by  that 
very  faith  and  obediance  be  brought  into  a 
vital  realization  of  the  genuine  truth  that  the 
Lord  is  love  itself,  and  the  appearances  ofanger 
and  wrath  are  the   only  reflection  of  man's 


76  WHAT  IjS  IJSrSPIBATIOJSr  ? 

own  opposition  to  goodness  and  truth.  And 
thus  it  is  with  the  truths  of  the  letter  of  the 
Word  both  genuine  and  apparent;  they  are 
precisely  those,  which  being,  obeyed  if  they 
be  command,  or  learned,  and  made  fertile  by 
meditation,  if  they  be  instruction,  will  gradu- 
ally lift  up  the  mind  to  a  perception  of  the 
higher  truths  within. 

It  may  be  asked  why  need  the  written  Word 
be  so  given,  with  its  essential  meaning  obscur- 
ed in  literal  appearances?  Why  was  it  not 
composed  in  such  a  manner  that  the  genuine 
truth  could  be  perceived  by  everyone  ?  And  I 
might  ask  in  return,  why  was  not  this  natural 
world  so  constituted  that  everyone  could  com- 
prehend it  at  a  glance?  Why  do  so  many 
things  in  the  world  around  us  appear  different 
*from  what  they  are  ?  Why  does  not  the  flash 
of  the  lightning  reveal  to  the  wondering  savage 
the  science  of  electricity?  Why  should  the 
God  of  nature  delude  His  intelligent  creatures 
with  such  fallacies  as  are  everywhere  insepar- 
able from  the  senses  ? 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  the  answer 
to  the  other.  We  have  learned  that  the  fal- 
lacies and  appearances  of  nature  are  insepera- 
ble  from  the  senses,  and  that  their  underlying 
principles  are  only  discoverable  by  experience, 


W^AT  IS  INSPIRATION  f  77 

observation  and  reason ;  and  a  revelation  which 
is  to  reach  the  sensual  mind  of  man  must  ob- 
serve the  same  law.  Just  as  the  senses  refuse  to 
see  things  in  nature  otherwise  than  as  they  ap- 
pear, and,  however  exalted  and  extensive  the 
cultivation  of  science,  still  maintain  the  im- 
pressions of  phenomena  as  presented  to  the 
merest  child ;  just  as  all  the  truths  of  science 
subsequently  learned,  serves  only  to  explain 
the  impressions  of  the  senses,  and  see  them- 
selves imaged  therein,  and  rest  firmly  in 
them  as  their  eternal  foundation;  so  the  re- 
ligious impressions  derived  from  the  letter  of 
the  Word,  remain  through  all  our  develop- 
ment of  a  rational  theology ;  and  all  our 
knowledge  of  spiritual  realities  neither  re- 
moves them  nor  weakens  them,  but  converts 
them  into  a  mirror  wherein  it  sees  itself  re- 
flected. Because  the  Word  of  our  Written 
Bible  is,  in  itself  a  series  of  related  adaptations 
of  divine  wisdom  to  angels  and  men,  extant 
an  open  book  in  all  the  heavens  and  on  the 
earth,  we  may  take  hold  of  it  anywhere,  and 
find  the  Lord  there.  In  simplest  precept,  or 
or  in  figure  or  song,  whatever  appeals  to  our 
state,  and  impresses  our  religious  faculty,  there, 
with  humility  and  love,  or  with  shame  and 
fear,  as  the  case  may  be,  we  may  rest  in  a  be- 


78  WJETAT  IS  INSPIRATION  1 

ginning  of  obedience,  and  find  the  Lord  of  all 
life.  !For  he  dwells  by  influx  in  all  its  forms 
and  appearances,  to  operate  our  regeneration, 
and  '^  open  our  eyes  to  behold  the  wonderful 
things  in  His  law." 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  let  us  turn  once 
more  to  the  representative  act  of  the  Lord 
with  which  we  began.  The  disciples  on  whom 
he  breathed  represent  these  inspired  truths  of 
His  Word  and  doctrine ;  and  the  breathing 
forth  of  His  holy  spirit  represents  that  common 
influx  through  heaven  into  the  mind  of  man, 
by  which  these  truths  become  "teachers  taught 
of  Him''  are  sent  forth  into  his  mental  world 
to  convert  and  turn  it  unto  rightousness. 
Whosesoever  sins  they  remit  are  remitted; 
that  is,  whoever  submits  to  their  guidance  in 
the  shunning  of  evils,  is  delivered  from  the 
power  of  his  sins.  Whosoever  will  not  yield 
to  their  guidance  in  the  shunning  of  evils  be- 
cause they  are  sins,  then  are  his  sins  retained. 
Such  is  the  commission  and  power  of  the  Word 
of  God  even  in  its  letter.  Its  truths  are 
Divine  and  infallible  teachers  and  judges  of 
men,  because  they  are  mediums  of  that  Spirit 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge  which  is  able  to 
"guide  into  all  truth''  and  "convince  the  world 
of  sin,  of  rightousness  and  of  judgment."     But 


WIfAT  JaS'  INSPIBATION  f  79 

this  infallibility  of  which  we  speak  is  not  that 
which  men  oppose  and  defend  in  their  debates 
concerning  the  authenticity  of  the  history  or 
science  in  the  Bible.  The  Word  is  infallible 
for  its  own  purposes,  which  are  divine  and 
eternal.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  history  or 
science  except  to  use  them,  or  to  use  men's 
impressions  of  them,  so  far  as  they  can  be  used 
in  the  giving  of  an  ultimate  body  to  revelation 
in  the  world.  The  infallibility  of  the  truths 
of  the  Word,  is  not  therefore,  as  teachers  of 
natural  wisdom,  but  as  quickeners  of  eternal 
life  in  whosoever  will  obey;  as  teachers,  "able 
to  make  men  wise  unto  salvation."     Amen. 


IV. 

THE  HISTOET  OF  EEVELATION; 
OE,  THE  SUCCESSIVE  DIS- 
PENSATIONS   OF 
THE  CHUECH. 

The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.— John  1, 14. 

The  internal  sense  'of  the  Word  opens  to 
thought  the  organic  nature,  and  the  needs  of 
the  human  soul ;  the  nature  and  consequences 
of  evil ;  the  nature  and  progress  of  regener- 
ation ;  the  augumentation  of  blessedness  in 
heaven,  and  the  insane  delights  of  the  wicked 
in  hell.  It  opens,  also,  the  spiritual  history 
of  the  race,  the  successive  states  of  the  Church, 
and  the  corresponding  Divine  dispensations  of 
truth,  or  the  degrees  and  modes  of  Divine 
revelation  and  manifestation.  The  race  has 
had  its  well  defined  periods  of  progress,  cor- 
responding to  infancy,  childhood,  youth  and 
manhood,  in  the  individual.  These  are  its 
Ages  with  respect  to  its  successive  states :  its 
(80) 


HISTOB  T  OF  BE  VELATIOJST,         81 

Dispensations  or  Churches,  with  respect  to  the 
manifestation  of  the  Word  and  Providence  of 
God.  The  Spiritual  history  of  these  dispen- 
sations or  Churches,  and  the  corresponding 
adaptations  of  "the  Word,"  which  "was  with 
God,  and  was  God,"  constitutes  what  may  be 
called  "  the  internal  historical  sense"  of  Holy 
Scripture ;  and  I  propose  in  this  discourse  to 
present  a  summary  view  of  this  history  of 
revelation  and  the  corresponding  dispensations 
of  the  Church,  as  it  is  expounded  in  the  doc- 
trines of  the  New  Church.  The  scope  of  the 
subject  is  so  vast,  that  I  must  of  necessity 
speak  dogmatically  and  in  general  terms  ;  but 
it  is,  also,  of  so  great  importance  to  the  whole 
subject  before  us,  that  the  barest  statement 
will  be  found  of  use  in  a  judgment  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  here  advoca- 
ted. I  may  remind  you  that  the  means  of 
verification  are  at  hand,  within  easy  reach  of 
every  sincere  student. 

Revelation  necessarily  has  a  history,  and 
its  history  is  at  the  same  time  the  history  of 
the  Church.  We  may  be  sure  of  this,  if  we 
remember  (a)  that  the  Revelation  of  the  Word 
is  God's  manifestation  to  finite  men  of  the 
infinite  things  of  his  own  Wisdom,  [b)  that 
nothing  can  be  given  to  men  which  cannot  be 
6 


82         HISTOE  Y  OF  BE  VELATION. 

received  by  tliein,  and  [c)  that  ages  and  races 
differ  indefinitely  in  their  capacity  of  reception. 
As  ages  succeed,  or  as  the  states  of  men  change, 
the  manifestation  of  the  Word,  which  is  the 
light  of  infinite  life,  must  change  its  form  in 
adaptation  to  this  varied  receptivity.  Other- 
wise it  could  not  be  recieved,  and  the  light 
would  shine  in  darkness,  uncomprehended.  If 
for  this  reason  Kevelation  is  multiform,  the 
order  and  succession  of  changes  in  its  adapta- 
tion, must  correspond  with  the  order  of  the 
spiritual  progress  of  mankind.  The  history 
of  the  one  is  the  history  of  the  otlier. 

Another  preliminary  statement  of  import- 
ance is,  that  the  individual  is  the  image  of  the 
universal  man.  Beginning  in  the  innocence  of 
infancy  and  progressing  through,  the  simple, 
open,  sincere,  affectionate  confidence  of  child- 
hood, and  the  restless,  willful  self-assertion  of 
youth,  the  individual  develops  gradually  to 
manhood.  With  continual  fluctuations,  these 
successive  stages  in  the  life  of  man  mark  a 
gradual  development  of  science,  and  a  strength- 
ening of  the  powers  of  the  natural  man ;  but 
on  the  other  hand  there  is  a  spiritual  declen- 
sion from  the  affectionate  docility  of  infancy 
and  the  faith  of  childhood,  to  the  self-will  and 
pride  of  intelligence  which  mark  the  natural 


JSI8T0B Y  OF  BEVELATIOm         83 

man.  As  it  is,  thus,  with  the  individual,  so 
has  it  been  with  the  race — the  larger  man. 

So  far  as  natural  science  is  able  at  all  to 
read  the  history  of  the  race,  it  has  been  with 
all  its  fluctuations  a  substantial  progress  in 
civilization  and  natural  knowledge.  The 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  however,  discloses 
to  us  the  other  side  of  this  development,  show- 
ing a  spiritual  declension,  marked  by  a  suc- 
cession of  Divine  dispensations  and  Churches, 
in  which  the  Heavenly  Father  adapted  His 
Word  to  the  changing  conditions  and  successive 
spiritual  deflections  of  His  children. 

Now,  it  is  important  to  remember  that  in 
both  cases  the  end  is  an  angelic  maturity. 
Both  with  the  individual  and  with  the  race, 
spiritual  preparation  is  made  in  the  successive 
declining  stages,  for  subsequent  redemption 
and  regeneration ;  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  progressive  natural  development  is  becom- 
ing a  prej)ared  foundation  for  the  subsequent 
activity  of  redeemed  and  quickened  spiritual 
powers.  The  innocent  states  of  infancy,  the 
pupilage  of  childhood,  and  the  discipline  of 
youth  are  internally  stored  away,  and  "re- 
main," to  be  again  vivified  and  developed  in 
the  time  of  man's  mature  rational  regenera- 
tion.   Though  seemingly  forgotten,  while  man 


84         HISTORY  OF  REVELATION, 

is  developing  as  a  social  and  civilized  natural 
being,  tliey  return  with  multiplying  power  in 
the  spiritual  states  of  his  religious  maturity. 
In  close  analogy  with  this  progress  of  man, 
the  successive  Divine  dispensations  or  churches, 
from  Adam  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  fur- 
nished a  necessary  preparation  for  the  Incar- 
nation and  Redemption  in  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Word  was  not  immediately  "  made  flesh,"  but 
mediately  through  a  succession  of  Divine  dis- 
pensations. 

The  internal .  sense  of  the  Word  presents 
five  general  dispensations  of  the  Church.  The 
word  Church  is  used  in  this  connection,  not  to 
indicate  sects,  organizations  or  establishments, 
'  but  the  mode  of  Divine  revelation,  and  the 
form  of  religious  life  in  man.  The  church  is 
the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth ;  it  is  the  reve- 
lation of  Divine  truth  and  goodness,  and  on 
man's  jjart  it  is  the  way  of  apprehending  tlie 
truth  and  the  degree  of  obedience  to  it.  On 
its  Divine  side  the  Church,  therefore,  is  one 
in  all  time,  for  it  is  the  giving  forth  of  that 
Word,  which  is  with  God,  and  is  God ;  but 
on  its  human  side,  it  varies  according  to  man's 
capacity  of  understanding  and  doing  the 
Word.  In  either  view,  it  is  a  Kingdom  of 
God  within   man,  and  not  a  thing  of  outward 


HISTORY  OF  BEYELATION.         85 

observation.  It  is  proper  enough  to  call  our 
organizations  and  instrumentalities  which  are 
derived  from  the  Word  and  Church  in  man, 
churches ;  but  this  is  not  the  primary  sense 
of  the  word  Church.  It  is  not  the  sense  in 
which  we  use  it  it  in  this  present  connection ; 
and  when  we  speak  of  dispensations  or  Churches, 
the  degree  and  mode  of  Divine  revelation,  and 
the  corresponding  forms  of  the  religious  life 
in  man,  are  to  be  understood.-  Using  the  word 
in  this  sense,  the  Holy  Scriptures  present,  as 
I  said,  five  general  dispensations  of  the  Church; 
— three  preceding  the  Incarnation,  one  inau- 
gurated by  it,  and  the  fifth  predicted,  and  now 
beginning  to  be  realized.  Those  which  pre- 
ceded the  Incarnation,  mark  the  successive 
stages  of  the  Divine  adaptation  of  truth  to 
man's  "  fall,"  even  till  it  was  manifested  to  his 
sensuous  perception  "  in  the  flesh,"  to  work  in 
the  plane  of  his  natural  life  a  plenary  redemp- 
tion. We  shall  see  that  "  the  fall  of  man" 
was  gradual,  and  the  coming  of  the  Lord  into 
the  world  w^as  progressive ;  and,  in  the  whole 
wonderful  history,  we  are  to  behold  a  steady 
evolution  of  the  Divine  purpose  to  become 
Himself,  the  Rock  against  whicli  the  gates  of 
hell  should  not  prevail,  and  have  to  Himself 
a  Cliurch  which  shall  be  indeed  the  Bride,  the 
Lamb's  wife. 


86         HISTORY  OF  REVELATION. 

.  The  first  state  of  the  Church,  and  the  Gold- 
en Age  of  the  race,  is  set  in  Holy  Scripture 
under  the  allegory,  or  "composed  history"  of 
Adam  and  the  Garden  of  Eden.  In  the  spirit- 
ual sense  of  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis,  we 
have  a  very  full  and  explicit  showing  of  the 
innocent,  artless,  infantile  character  of  the 
Most  Ancient  Church.  Under  the  symbol  of 
creation  is  portrayed  the  development  of  the 
celestial  man  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord ;  not 
the  creation  of  the  outward  phenominal  heav- 
ens and  earth  and  moving  things,  but  the  de- 
velopment of  the  intei'nal  spiritual  earth  and 
heavens  of  the  soul ;  the  orderly  regeneration 
of  primitive  men;  the  formation  of  their  will 
and  understanding,  with  their  affections  and 
perceptions,  by  and  under  the  moving  Spirit 
of  God.  The  Garden  of  Eden,  the  paradise 
of  God,  is  the  resultant  state  of  mind  and 
heart;  with  the  Lord  and  the  perception  of 
His  life  ever  present,  and  all  heavenly  growths 
of  affection  and  thought  springing  up  in  the 
soul,  from  the  heat  and  light  of  His  immanent 
Spirit. 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  upon  this  won- 
derful story  of  Creation.  There  is  just  now 
in  the  Churches  a  revival  of  the  attempt  to 
harmonize  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  with 


HISTORY  OF  REVELATION.         87 

current  science,  and  by  a  skillful,  and  doubt- 
less innocent,  reading  of  the  truth  of  science 
into  the  narrative,  the  attempt  is  attended  with 
a  measure  of  apparent  success.  But  the  result 
is  quite  disproportionate  to  the  labor  expended, 
and  can  scarcely  be  called  satisfactory.  The 
general  truth  that  God  is  the  Creator  of  the 
universe,  is  a  truth  of  revelation,  which  science 
cannot  discover,  but  which  it  may  confirm. 
Beyond  this  the  attempt  to  read  the  lessons  of 
observation  into  the  story  of  Creation  issues 
in  nothing;  it  results  in  no  other  important 
contribution  to  either  natural  or  spiritual 
knowledge.  When  all  is  done  that  can  be 
done  in  that  direction,  we  still  feel  that  there 
must  be  some  other  worthy  spiritual  revelation 
for  us  in  the  wonderful  details  of  the  narrative 
in  Genesis.  The  Science  of  Correspondence 
in  opening  to  us  the  spiritual  meaning  of  this 
Scripture  justifies  this  feeling,  and  vindicates 
the  Word  of  God  as  such.  The  structure  of 
the  narrative,  which  has  been  a  source  of  such 
infinite  trouble  to  the  literal  interpreters,  is 
seen  to  have  a  divine  cause  in  the  message  and 
meaning  it  bears;  and  to  yield  an  orderly 
serial  and  instructive  description  of  the  pro- 
cesses and  progressions  of  God's  spiritual  Crea- 
tion, or  regeneration  of  man.     The  "  Creation" 


,ITHI7BRSIT71 


88         HISTOBY  OF  REVELATION. 

described  is  regeneration  ;  the  active  agent  is 
the  Word,  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  the  field  of  oper- 
ation is  the  heavens  and  earth  within  man,  or 
what  the  apostle  calls,  the  internal  and  exter- 
nal man ;  the  six  days  are  the  successive  states 
of  spiritual  development;  and  the  Sabbath  of 
rest  is  the  resultant  concordance  of  human 
nature  with  the  Divine  nature,  when  all  in 
man  is  God's  in  him,  and  "  very  good." 

Regeneration  is  the  birth,  or  development 
of  the  Spiritual  nature  in  man,  and  like  all 
birth  it  is  orderly  and  progressive. 

The  natural  mind,-^hich  is  born  from  the 
world,  from  the  impressions  of  the  senses,  and 
habits  of  systematic  thought  in  regard  to  those 
impressions,  is  first  formed  in  man  before  the 
spiritual  planes  of  his  nature  can  be  developed 
in  the  least.  But  in  this  state  of  the  natural 
man,  preparation  is  made  for  their  develop- 
ment. Some  knowledge  of  spiritual  things 
can  be  laid  up  in  the  treasure-house  of  his 
memory.  He  can  be  taught  that  there  is  a 
God,  and  a  spiritual  world,  and  that  realities 
which  transcend  the  senses  have  claims  upon 
his  attention  ;  and  in  the  learning  of  these 
things,  in  his  infancy  and  childhood,  certain 
afiections  of  delight  in  them  are  stored  away 
in  the,  as  yet  unconscious,  interiors  of  his  soul. 


HISTOE  T  OF  BE  VJELATIOJST,         89 

But  darkness  broods  over  the  sea  of  worldly 
knowleges  and  possibilities;  what  he  has 
learned  of  spiritual  things,  is  chaotic,  and 
without  power  to  reduce  the  things  of  his 
consciousness  to  order  and  endow  them  with 
heavenly  life.  To  quicken  all  these  possibili- 
ties, the  Spirit  of  God  moves  in  him,  and  the 
Living  Word  comes  to  him  with  its  "  light."" 
Then  begins  with  man  a  second  state,  in 
which  he  finds  that  he  has  two  natures ;  an 
inward  and  an  outward  man;  and  that,  there- 
fore, there  are  two  spheres  of  knowledge,  one 
pertaining  to  the  outward  world,  and  the 
other  to  God  and  immortal  life.  The  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  his  law,  now  stands  apart  in 
awful  distinctness  and  clothed  with  its  own 
authority ;  not  to  be  confounded  with  the 
mere  natural  knowledges  which  come  through 
the  avenues  of  sense.  If  it  has  slept  inopera- 
tive, the  breath  of  God  may  vivify  it,  and  dis- 
criminate it  from  our  own  will  and  thought, 
and  lay  a  solemn  interdiction  upon  our  evils 
and  errors.  Then  comes  in  a  third  state,  in 
which  man  begins,  from  the  Lord,  to  talk 
piously  and  devoutly,  and  to  do  good  actions  ; 
but  which,  nevertheless,  are  not  living  or  sav- 
ing, because  they  are  supposed  to  originate  in 
himself.     The  outward  and  inward  man  are 


90         HISTOB  T  OF  BE  VELATION; 

not  only  separated  by  the  firmament ;  but 
tliey  are  placed  face  to  face,  and  in  opposition 
to  each  other.  Man  obeys  the  Lord's  truth, 
but  it  is  a  forced  obedience,  rendered  in  oppo- 
sition to  inclination.  In  the  first  place,  truth 
was  only  something  learned;  in  the  second 
state,  it  was  seen  to  be  from  the  Lord,  and  in- 
vested with  his  Divine  authority  ;  but  in  this 
third  state,  it  comes  out  with  its  reasons  and 
the  commands  of  conscience.  It  brings  re- 
pentance and  self-denial;  and  must  continue 
until  we  are  subdued,  and  our  moralities  are 
fixed  in  habit.  When  this  state  is  full,  and 
its  work  completed,  still  our  evils  are  not  re- 
moved. 

But  they  have  been  silenced,  and  self-love 
loosened  in  all  its  intrenchments  ;  and  then  at 
last,  the  Lord  will  come  into  the  heart,  and 
take  up  all  its  room,  dimly  at  first,  full-orbed 
at  last.  This  fourth  state  is  that  in  which  man 
receives  from  the  Lord  the  sun  of  spiritual 
love,  and  the  moon  of  living  faith,  and  the  stars 
of  heavenly  knowledge,  all  set  in  the  firmament 
of  the  internal  mind,  to  shed  light  and  quick- 
ening into  the  reformed  earth  of  the  external 
man.  Man  is  moved  with  new  impulses,  and 
thinks  and  acts  from  the  Divine  will  as  his 
central  and  controlling  motive.     The  old  lusts 


iris  TOUT  OF  REVELATION,         91 

and  persuasions  are  not  merely  loosened,  but 
they  move  out,  even  beyond  the  region  of  the 
consciousness,  as  this  new  and  mighty  love 
for  goodness  and  truth  for  their  own  sake  be- 
comes the  very  life  of  man's  affections.  We 
not  only  believe  the  truth  but  see  it  and  feel 
it.  Our  moralities  become  spontaneous,  the 
outbursting  of  the  soul's  unfailing  love.  They 
are  living  and  life-giving;  and  the  following 
states  of  the  regenerate  life,  are  only  the  ulti- 
mations  of  this  new  will  and  faith,  in  all  the 
living  forms  of  regenerate  natural  affection 
and  perception.  When  the  love  of  the  Lord 
has  become  fixed  in  the  heart,  and  burns  there 
as  an  eternal  sun,  it  not  only  transfuses  all  our 
beliefs  and  runs  them  into  celestial  moulds, 
but  all  our  knowledge  is  exalted  into  the  ser- 
vice of  the  new  man.  Then  finally  the  cen- 
tral Divine  love  flows  forth  into  all  our  deeds; 
they  are  duties  no  longer,  but  delights.  This 
is  the  sixth  day  in  which  God  makes  a  man  in 
His  image  and  likeness  ;  it  is  the  end  of  the 
states  of  labor,  for  the  Sabbath  comes,  the 
golden  dawn  of  God's  eternal  rest  in  the  soul. 
Primeval  men,  though  free  from  the  tenden- 
cies and  proclivities  to  evil  which  we  inherit 
as  the  result  of  a  tainted  ancestry,  were,  never- 
theless, merely  natural  men,  needing  to  be  re- 


92         HISTOB  Y  OF  BE  VELATIOW. 

born,  or  developed  as  spiritual  beings  into  the 
imaofe  and  likeness  of  God.  With  them  the 
processes  of  regeneration  were  free  from  the 
throes  of  spiritual  temptation,  which  men  at 
this  day  encounter  on  account  of  inherited 
evil,  but  the  succession  of  states  and  order  of 
development  was  the  same  as  it  is  with  us,  and 
as  it  will  always  be.  This,  of  which  we  have 
given  only  the  most  general  statement,  is  pre- 
sented in  the  Story  of  Creation.  Every  detail 
of  the  narrative  is  pregnant  with  the  most  en- 
lightening doctrine  as  to  the'progressive  devel- 
opment of  the  spiritCRil  nature  of  primeval 
men,  even  to  the  establishment  with  them  of 
the  Celestial  Church.  Like  a  garden  planted 
by  the  Lord,  was  the  Most  Ancient  Church  in 
the  perfection  and  beauty  of  its  first  estate. 
It  pulsated  with  the  Divine  life,  and  was  irra- 
diated with  its  light.  The  natural  history  of 
this  age  is  not  preserved,  but  every  item  in 
the  Bible  Story  of  Adam  is  replete  with  sig- 
nificance as  to  its  celestial  state ;  and  some- 
thing of  the  same  Allegory  is  preserved  in 
the  traditions  of  all  peoples.  The  men  of  this 
age  were  simple,  open,  sincere,  affectionate  and 
true.  They  acted  from  impulse  ;  but  their 
impulse  was  derived  from  the  Lord.  The 
Word  which  "was  with  God,  and  was  God,'' 


HISTOBY  OF  BEYELATIOm         93 

flowed  into  them  as  a  stream  from  the  Divine 
fountain;  indeed  as  the  very  Divine  life  itself, 
and  thus  a  living  light.  The  Lord  walked 
and  talked  with  them  in  the  midst  of  the  gar- 
den ;  they  were  capable  of  holding  Commun- 
ion with  God  by  means  of  His  love  and  wis- 
dom "  written  on  their  hearts."  They  were 
capable  thus  of  loving  what  he  loved,  and  lived 
in  open  perception  of  His  wisdom.  Heaven 
and  earth  were  united  in  them  ;  the  will  of  God 
was  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven ;  and  the 
whole  phenomenal  world  was  a  mirror  of 
Divine  intelligence,  wisdom  peace  and  love. 
They  had  no  need  of  external  verbal  revelation 
of  truth  to  guide  them  into  the  apprehension 
and  perception  of  it.  Instead  of  the  command 
to  love  the  Lord  with  all  the'  heart,  or  the 
teaching  that  they  should  do  so,  with  the  rea- 
sons for  so  doing,  they  had  this  truth  inspired 
through  the  heart  and  revealed  to  them  in 
affection  to  do  so.  They  needed  no  instruction 
from  without,  no  authority  to  coerce,  and  no 
reasons  to  persuade ;  for  to  what  is  good  they 
had  a  "  yea  "  implanted  in  the  will,  and  to 
what  is  evil  a  "  nay,"  with  none  of  that  stub- 
bornness of  will  which  requires  more  than  these. 
They  needed  no  compass  to  shape  their  course, 
for  the  truth  was  in  their  wind  and  tide.     As 


94         mSTOB Y  OF  BE VELATION, 

they  received  light  from  the  life  within,  their 
inclinations  and  appetites  were  of  the  truth,  and 
were  true. 

In  time,  for  reasons  into  which  we  cannot 
enter  particularly,  the  people  of  the  Most  An- 
cient Church  fell  away  from  this  single- 
minded  communion  with  the  Lord.  The  rea- 
sons, indeed,  are  not  easy  to  give.  In  what 
the  fall  of  man  consisted  we  shall  see;  that  it 
came  in  the  exercise  of  his  implanted  freedom 
we  may  believe ;  but  how  the  first  impulse 
and  enticement  grew  upon  him,  when  all  was 
"  very  good,"  it  wouM  be  more  difficult  to 
show.  Perhaps  we  shall  see  an  image  of  this, 
but  only  an  image,  in  the  transition  of  the  in- 
fant to  the  child  with  its  more  pronounced 
willfulness.  Its  senses  are  more  and  more 
developed;  and  with  their  advance  toward 
supremacy  there  comes  in  something  of  self- 
assertion,  and  self-confidence.'  This  was  the 
fall  of  the  people  of  the  Most  Ancient 
Church,  however  it  may  have  come  about — 
a  yiekling  to  the  suggestions  of  the  serpent,  the 
sensual  principle,  with  its  persuasion  that  all 
thin  git  were  not  from  the  Lord,  that  they  them- 
selves were  really  good  and  wise,  and  might 
of  themselves  judge  of  good  and  evil.  Then 
began  the  decline  of  that  Church ;  and  then 


SISTOB Y  OF  BE  VELATIOW.         95 

was  given  the  promise  of  the  Messiah.  The 
progress  of  its  consummation  was  gradual; 
and  under  the  names  of  the  posterity  of  Adam 
is  detailed  the  various  sects  into  which  it  di- 
vided, and  by  which  preparation  was  made 
for  a  new  Church  and  a  new  dispensation  of 
the  Word,  when  the  consummation  of  that 
should  have  fully  come. 

At  the  end  of  everv  Church,  the  Lord  saves 
a  remnant,  with  whom  may  be  established  a 
new  dispensation  ;  or  what  is  the  same  thing: 
He  provides  that  the  new  shall  be  established 
with  the  few  who  abide  in  faith  and  hope  to 
the  end  of  the  old.  The  Golden  Age  passed 
away,  and  the  Adamic  Church  was  s^wallowed 
up  in  a  flood  of  evil  practices  and  false  doc- 
trines. The  Silver  Age  followed,  and  a  new 
Church  was  established,  the  spiritual  history 
of  which  is  set  forth  under  the  story  of  Noah 
and  his  posterity.  It  is  in  this  change  that  we 
shall  see  how  the  Lord,  or  the  Word,  follows 
man,  with  adaptations  adequate  to  his  new  ne- 
cessity. 

The  men  of  the  former  age  acted  from  im- 
pulse*; and,  while  their  impulses  were  good, 
all  was  very  good.  But  when,  from  the 
deflection  of  the  will,  their  impulses  were 
turned   into  evil,   they   still   followed    them. 


96         HISTOB  Y  OF  BE  VELATIOJST, 

"  Every  imagination  of  the  thought  of  their 
hearts  was  only  evil  continually ;  and  how 
was  it  possible  for  the  Lord  to  reclaim  them  ? 
How,  indeed,  but  by  bringing  the  race  to  a 
halt,  and  giving  it  a  new  start,  and  this  in  a 
new  direction  !  When  He  could  no  longer 
lead  man  by  his  affections — when  every  influx 
of  the  Divine  Life  into  man's  will  was  turned 
into  evil  desire,  and  this  in  turn  presented  it- 
self in  his  thought  in  the  form  of  falsity  — 
the  Lord  interposed  by  presenting  His  Word 
to  the  thought  first  through  an  external  rev- 
elation. Thus,  by  a  -^dically  new  disj^ensa- 
tion  of  the  Word,  in  an  entirely  new  way,  the 
Lord  inaugurated  a  new  state  of  the  Church. 
With  the  Noetic  Church  a  new  mode  of 
life  was  introduced  ;  by  external  revelation  it 
was  made  possible  to  think  and  reflect  concern- 
ing the  truth  as  something  apart  from  that 
which  the  heart  loved.  The  understanding 
could  be  elevated  above  the  will,  and  truth 
learned  as  doctrine,  could  be  acknowledged  as 
duty,  and  finally  loved  for  its  own  sake.  The 
Adamic  Church  had  only  perception  of  truth 
from  love,  and  when  the  love  was  evil  the  truth 
was  turned  into  falsity  in  the  thought,  but  the 
Noetic  Church  was  endowed  with  conscience 
formed  by  a  new  manifestation   of  the  Word 


HISTORY  OF  REVELATION.         97 

through  an  external  revelation  which  could  be 
learned,  understood  and  loved.  The  Adamic 
Church  beheld  heaven  in  the  earth  ;  they  per- 
ceived without  reflection  the  Divine  and  heav- 
enly things  in  their  earthly  Correspondences. 
The  Noetic  Church,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
taught  intellectually  to  see  spiritual  things  in 
natural  things.  The  knowledge  of  Correspond- 
ences was  given  as  a  science  in  the  form  of 
doctrine;  and  the  Divine  truth  was  externally 
revealed  by  means  of  a  written  Word  com- 
posed exclusively  according  to  the  correspond- 
ence of  natural  with  Divine  things.  Kepre- 
sentative  worship  was  instituted  in  which  the 
places,  the  sacrifices  and  symbolism,  were  all 
significative  of  spiritual  things ;  and  the  sig- 
nification was  communicated  to  Novitiates  by 
instruction,  and  preserved  by  tradition.  The 
references  in  the  Bible  to  the  book  of  Jasher, 
the  Wars  of  Jehovah,  and  the  Enunciations 
confirm  the  existence  of  an  ancient  Word ; 
and  Swedenborg  teaches  us  that  the  first  chap- 
ters of  Genesis,  which  treat  of  Creation,  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and 
of  their  sons  and  posterity  down  to  the  flood, 
and  also,  of  Noah  and  his  sons,  were  tran- 
scribed from  that  Word  by  Moses.  (T.  C.  E, 
279.) 
7 


98         HISTORY  OF  BE VELATIOJST, 

The  Christian  world  has  come  to  recog- 
nize that  there  was  an  Old  Testament  before 
the  Pentateuch  was  written,  and  that  traces 
of  these  lost  works  are  to  be  found  in  the 
actual  text ;  and  it  ought  to  be  well  disposed 
therefore,  toward  the  further  teaching  that  it 
was  continued  in  use  among  some  of  the  nations 
of  the  East,  down  even  to  the  time  of  the  Jew- 
ish dispensation.  And  from  the  character  of 
the  early  chapters  of  Genesis,  which  are  gener- 
ally believed  to  have  been  copied  from  more 
ancient  documents,  it  may  easily  be  confirmed 
that  the  earliest  written  revelation  was  given  in 
the  pure  language  of  Correspondences.  It  was 
because  that  Word  was  full  of  Correspondences 
which  signified  celestial  and  spiritual  things 
remotely,  and  consequently  began  to  be  falsi- 
fied by  many,  that  in  Divine  Providence  it  dis- 
appeared, and  another  Word  was  given,  writ- 
ten by  Correspondences  not  so  remote.  For  in 
the  course  of  time,  the  Ancient  Church  also 
fell  away,  as  had  the  Adamic  Church  before 
it.  Noah  became  drunken  with  the  wine  of 
his  own  vineyard  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  people 
of  the  Ancient  Church  began  to  pervert  the 
doctrines  of  spiritual  truth  to  the  feeding  of 
their  pride  and  self-gratification.  They  began 
to   consult   their  own  intelligence  regarding 


HISTOR  Y  OF  BE  VELATIOJST.         99 

Divine  things,  to  be  deceived  with  their  own 
conceits,  and  confused  with  their  own  reason- 
ings. They  aspired  to  build  a  Tower  which 
should  reach  to  heaven ;  and  instead  of  one 
speech  and  language  as  at  first,  their  doctrines 
became  confused  and  divided ;  they  gradually 
lost  their  knowledge  of  Divine  language,  be- 
came Idolaters,  Magicians  and  Sorcerers,  and 
in  their  dispersion  lost  their  written  Word 
itself.  The  partial  and  vitiated  doctrines  of 
its  Divine  wisdom  were  preserved  in  the  tradi- 
tions, and  written  in  the  sacred  books  of  the 
various  nations ;  but  no  longer  possessing  the 
key  to  the  ancient  Correspondences  and  repre- 
sentatives, their  worship  soon  descended  into 
one  form  or  another  of  polytheism  and  idol- 
atry. 

In  natural  knowledge  and  civilization  the 
race  was  advancing.  The  rise  of  empires 
began — Egypt,  Nineveh  and  Babylon — the 
foundations  of  which  outstretch  even  the 
farthest  reach  of  tradition.  But  on  its  spir- 
itual side  the  race  was  declining,  and  God 
following  it.  "When  the  Celestial  perception 
of  the  Adamic  Church  was  destroyed,  the 
Lord  invested  Himself  as  the  Word  with  the 
Spiritual  doctrines  of  truth  revealed  to  the 
understanding   of  the   Noetic  Church;    and 


100       IIISTOUY  OF  BEVELATION, 

when  tins  also  failed,  He  called  Abraham,  and 
inaugurated  a  new  dispensation  of  the  Church 
with  the  Hebrew  and  Jewish  people,  and  led 
them  by  means  of  direct  commandments, 
wonders,  and  threats  and  promises.  First,  to 
Abraham  and  the  Patriarchs,  by  Angelopha- 
nies,  and  such  direct  supernatural  revelation 
as  they  were  able  to  receive,  and  afterward  to 
the  Jews  under  the  leadership  of  Moses,  and 
through  the  word  of  the  Prophets,  the  Lord  es- 
tablished a  representative  of  a  Church,  unto 
the  time  when  He  must  needs  come  in  the  flesh, 
and  put  forth  the  miglit  of  His  Divine  truth 
in  a  humanity  of  His  own. 

The  idea  to  be  sustained  is,  that  from  the 
fall  of  Adam  to  the  time  of  the  appearing  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Church  gradually  declined 
from  its  primeval  simplicity  ;  man  receding 
further  and  further  from  the  interior  love  of 
God  and  the  perception  of  his  wisdom ;  that 
the  Lord  as  the  Word  successively  accommo- 
dated His  Divine  Truth  to  this  declining  per- 
ception ;  and  that  when  the  children  of  Israel 
were  chosen  to  represent  a  "  holy  nation," 
and  a  "  royal  priesthood,"  man  had  arrived  at 
a  most  external  state  in  regard  to  religion,  in 
which  the  things  of  the  Word  could  only  be 
believed  so  far  as  they  vrere   presented  to  the 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  BE  VELA  TION,       101 

outward  senses.  The  Church  of  heavenly  im- 
pulse passed  awa}^  and  the  Church  of  faith 
succeeded;  this  declined,  and  the  Church  of 
mere  external  obedience  followed,  and  as  this 
declined  the  semblance  of  a  Church  was  main- 
tained through  the  miraculously  enforced  obe- 
dience of  Israel.  In  all  this  time,  and  by  suc- 
cessive accommodations  to  these  states  of  de- 
cline in  human  perception,  the  Word  was 
being  made  flesh,  and  the  Lord  was  descending 
with  His  children  into  the  plane  of  sensuous 
life.  In  man's  innocence  the  Lord  walked 
and  talked  with  him  in  the  garden  of  his  soul. 
In  man's  state  of  spiritual  charity,  the  Lord 
revealed  himself  to  the  understanding  through 
the  natural  representatives  in  which  man 
could  perceive  the  spiritual  subjects.  In  the 
obscuration  of  charity  He  kept  alive  some 
faith  in  his  Word,  and  some  knowledge  of 
Himself  as  God-man,  through  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Angel  of  His  presence.  In  man's 
natural  rebellion  and  worldliness  He  followed 
him  with  wonders,  and  punishments  and  re- 
wards, and  kept  him  in  a  sort  of  enforced  obe- 
dience. And  when  man  became  wholly  car- 
nal, so  that  even  Divine  truth  addressed  to  the 
natural  mind  lost  its  power  over  human  con- 
duct,  through  the    separation    of    his   heart 


lOa       HISTOBY  OF  BEVELATION, 

from  Divine  goodness,  the  Word  was  made 
flesh,  and  exhibited  in  the  form  of  man,  and 
in  the  Divine  conduct  of  human  life  before  the 
very  senses  of  men. 

In  each  of  these  successive  manifestations 
of  the  Word  it  had  been  invested  with  some- 
thing of  man,  clothed  with  forms  derived  from 
the  state  of  human  reception,  until  in  the 
Jewish  church  it  was  so  accommodated  to 
their  "  froward "  hearts,  that  they  were  al- 
lowed to  think  of  God  as  altogether  such  an 
one  as  themselves ;  of  His  law  as  arbitrary 
command,  obedience  to  which  was  only  to  be 
inspired  by  fear,  or  hope  of  temporal  pros- 
perity. 

In  such  a  state,  so  clothed  and  so  regarded. 
Divine  Truth  is  shorn  of  its  power  over  the 
lives  of  men.  They  soon  began  to  stone  the 
prophets,  and  kill  those  that  were  sent  unto 
them  ;  till  the  Divine  communication  died  out 
in  Malichi  with  the  promise  of  the  Lord's  com- 
ing, with  ^*  glad  tidings  "  to  those  who  looked 
unto  Him  and  hoped  in  Him  for  deliverance, 
and  with  woe  to  those  who  feared  Him  not. 
When  that  night  also  reached  its  culmination 
in  the  perversion  of  the  law  through  tradition, 
then  He  did  come«by  another,  and  the  lowest 
and   the   purest  revelation  of  Divine  Truth 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  BE  VELA  TIOJST.       103 

then  possible.  He  raised  up,  when  "  there 
was  no  man/'  a  man  of  His  own  by  immedi- 
ate impregnation  of  a  virgin,  and  Divine  Con- 
ception ;  and  manifested  the  Word  in  the  flesh 
for  the  redemption  promised  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

Thus,  through  all  the  dispensations  of  the 
Church  it  was  the  Father  following  the  prodi- 
gal, working  and  waiting  in  Divine  patience 
till  he  came  to  the  swine-husks  ;  where  and 
when,  for  the  first  time  mightily.  He  could 
reach  forth  His  hand  to  help.  When  man, 
therefore,  had  put  darkness  for  light,  and  per- 
verted even  the  precepts  of  the  Decalogue  till 
they  reached  no  real  plane  of  human  life,  it 
was  time  for  the  Lord  to  reveal  Himself  anew. 
When  there  was  no  medium  by  which  the 
Divine  love  could  reach  the  corrupt  heart  to 
quicken  it,  it  was  necessary  for  the  Lord  to 
assume  a  new  medium  by  which  to  dispense 
His  life  and  light  with  power.  This  was  the 
occasion  of  the  Incarnation.  Divine  truth 
was  well  nigh  lost  to  human  apprehension  in 
the  external  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  from 
merely  sensual  perception  in  the  Church  were 
loved  for  no  significance  of  their  own,  but 
from  an  idolatrous,  sensuous  devotion.  Lower 
than   this  the  Divine  •  truth  with  men  cannot 


104       JIISTOR  Y  OF  BE  VELATIOI^, 

exist,  and  profaned  in  the  Church  it  was  shorn 
of  its  power.  The  ends  of  salvation  required 
a  Divine  revelation  which  should  under-reach 
man's  rebellion,  and  dispense  the  Divine  truth 
with  power  of  help  to  his  very  lowest  sensuous 
state. 

The  Lord  as  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
addressed  Himself  to  this  sensual  intellect  in 
man;  and  thus  came  into  the  world  to  be  seen 
with  the  eyes  and  heard  with  the  ears,  so  that 
if  only  through  the  medium  of  the  senses 
mankind  might  learn  anew  to  comprehend 
something  of  the  Divine  love  and  wisdom,  and 
from  understanding  progress  to  love  and  do 
His  precepts,  and  live.  The  spirit  of  the  Most 
High  clothed  itself  in  with  humanity  in  the 
womb  of  a  virgin,  and  took  human  nature 
into  conjunction  with  His  invisible  and  unap- 
proachable essence,  and  thus  stretched  forth 
an  arm  into  the  natural  world  by  which  to  sub- 
due man's  enemies  and  mediate  to  his  lowest 
necessities,  the  Divine  spirit  of  life  and  all 
might.  This  was  that  coming  of  the  Word 
for  which  preparation  had  been  made  from 
the  first;  for  this,  all  who  loved  God,  and 
hoped  in  his  redemption,  in  every  dispensation 
of  the  Church,  were  taught  to  look ;  and  unto 
this  end  they  were  preserved  in  the  world  of 


HISTOB  Y  OF  BE  VELATIOK,       105 

spirits,  to  be  delivered  when  He  should  come 
in  the  fullness  of  time.  This  manifestation 
of  the  Word  by  Incarnation  was  more  than  a 
manifestation;  it  was  an  ultimate  exercise  of 
Divine  power  for  the  conversion  of  the  race ; 
a  conflict  and  a  victory. 

Whatever  difficulties  may  belong  to  your 
idea  of  the^  Incarnation  and  the  glorification  of 
the  Lord's  humanity,  it  is  sufficient  to  observe 
that  His  first  advent  was  His  manifestation 
through  the  medium  of  the  humanity  assumed; 
and  that  it  was  required  by,  and  was  adequate 
to,  the  sensuous  state  of  mankind.  Men  had 
lost  the  power  to  conceive  spiritually  of  the 
Divine  truth  ;  they  perverted  every  command- 
ment of  God  to  the  favoring  of  their  own 
councils,  and  there  was  among  them  no  me- 
dium of  Divine  help.  Then  the  Lord  raised 
up  a  manhood  of  his  own  which  should  reveal 
His  Divine  goodness  and  wisdom  to  disciples 
and  enemies,  and  thus  came  into  the  world. 
His  coming,  because  it  was  a  revelation  of  His 
truth  and  power  to  the  lowest,  and  even  to  de- 
mons, brought  judgment  and  redemption. 
Judgment  to  evil  men  and  evil  spirits;  redemp- 
tion, not  from  the  price  and  penalty  of  sin,  but 
from  the  compelling  power  of  our  spiritual 
enemies,  and  from  the  hand  of  them  that  hate 


106       HISTORY  OF  BEVELATIOJST, 

us.  Seeing  Him  they  saw  the  truth  of  Divine 
love  as  no  words  could  present  it  to  them.  He 
brought  the  Father  forth  to  view,  and  mani- 
fested the  begetting  and  sustaining  love  of 
God  in  the  begotten  and  sustained  righteous- 
ness and  power  of  His  own  personal  presence. 
The  result  was  twofold :  deliverance  and  sal- 
vation to  them  that  received  Him;  judgment 
and  subordination  to  them  that  worshiped 
the  prince  of  this  world.  He  "  cast  out  the 
spirits  with  His  word,"  that  men,  "  being  de- 
livered from  their  enemies,  might  serve  Him 
in  righteousness  and  ItA^liness  before  Him  all 
the  days  of  their  life."  What  He  came  to  do 
He  finished ;  and  did  it  perfectly.  He  came  to 
manifest  Himself  to  the  sensuous  thought  of 
men  by  appearing  bodily  before  th'eir  senses, 
and  working  before  their  eyes  the  works  of 
God,  and  exerting  in  the  plane  of  the  natural 
mind,  upon  both  the  willing  and  the  unwilling, 
the  power  of  God  unto  judgment  or  salvation. 
For  this  His  incarnation  was  necessary;  this, 
in  His  incarnation,  He  perfectly  accomplished. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  New  Church. 
The  Lord  provided  in  His  manifest  personal 
advent  for  the  perpetuation  of  its  revelations 
and  benefits.  The  withdrawal  of  the  sensuous 
image  of  His  presence  was  a  necessary  part  of 


HISTOB Y  OF  BE  Y ELATION,       107 

the  work ;  it  was  necessary  that  the  power  of 
His  spirit  might  be  felt  "calling  all  things  to 
their  remembrance,"  whatsoever  they  had  seen 
and  heard.  The  disciples  gradually  and 
privately  gathered  together  and  commenced  a 
new  Church  movement  on  the  basis  of  these 
remembrances.  They  preached  the  Gospel 
and  established  Churches.  They  based  their 
convictions  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  upon 
what  they  had  seen  of  the  Lord  in  His  mani- 
festation to  their  sensuous  perceptions,  and 
what  they  had  realized  of  his  promises  in  the 
experiences  ^of  their  natural  religious  life. 
This  was  the  dispensation  of  the  first  advent 
— the  acknowledgment  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
Son  of  God — confession  of  all  the  facts  of 
the  Incarnation  as  the  Gospel  of  redemption, 
and  salvation  through  obedience  to  the  Lord's 
precepts  of  life.  As  its  first  fruits  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Christ,  there 
grew  up  the  Gospel,  as  the  means  of  transmit- 
ting its  benefits  to  all  generations.  And  in 
the  Gospels  we  have  "  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh,"  as  to  all  the  benefits  of  such  a  manifes- 
tation. In  the  recorded  life  of  Christ  the 
Lord  makes  His  first  advent  to  us  also.  He 
is  personally  manifest  to  our  sensuous  thought 
therein,  and  no  other  such  advent  or  manifes- 


108       HISTOB  Y  OF  BE  YELATION. 

tation  is  needed.  If  He  were  here,  present  in 
the  flesh,  He  Would  show  us  no  other  than  that 
which  is  shown  in  the  record  of  the  life  on 
earth  whereby  he  glorified  His  humanity,  and 
made  it  to  have  life  in  itself  as  the  Father  hath 
life  Himself.  If  we  had  reclined  with  John 
on  Jesus'  breast,  or  washed  His  feet,  like  the 
woman,  with  our  tears,  we  would  have  been  no 
better  disciples  than  it  is  possible  for  us  to  be 
now.  With  the  Gospel  of  His  first  advent  we 
have  that  advent  and  need  no  further  such 
manifestation,  nor  could  we  be  benefited  by 
such.  If  we  see  no  beauty  in  Him  to  desire 
Him  now,  we  may  know  we  would  have  been 
among  those  who  said,  "Thou  art  mad,  and 
hast  a  devil."  If  we  find  no  power  of  healing 
in  His  Divine  precepts,  neither  would  we  were 
He  bodily  present,  and  should  we  follow  in  the 
throng  and  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment. 
No !  the  Lord  makes  His  first  advent  to  every 
man  to  whom  the  Gospel  of  His  Incarnation 
comes ;  and  the  way  in  which  we  treat  Him  in 
this,  precisely  corresponds  to  the  way  in 
which  we  would  treat  Him  if  He  should  reveal 
Himself  again  in  the  flesh. 

But  it  was  part  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Incarna- 
tion that  the  Lord  should  come  again  ;  that  the 
Christian  Church  should  fall  away,  and  its  un- 


BISTORT  OF  REVELATION,       109 

derstanding  of  the  Word  fail,  and  its  love  wax 
cold,  and  then  He  would  come  as  the  Son  of 
Man  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  The  twenty- 
fourth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  Matthew  sets 
forth,  under  the  symbolism  of  war,  conflict 
and  distress  of  nations,  and  commotion  in  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  the  gradual  decline  and 
corruption  of  the  Church  of  His  first  coming. 
The  symbolism  used  is  the  common  and  sug- 
gestive imagery  of  the  old  Prophets,  and  can 
only  be  misunderstood  by  a  blind  determina- 
tion to  literalism.  Literally  understood,  it 
cannot  be  understood  at  all.  Spiritually  un- 
derstood, these  predictions  show  :  First,  that 
the  Church  would  begin  not  to  know  what  was 
good  and  true,  and  be  filled  with  disputations  ; 
second,  that  it  would  come  to  despise  good  and 
truth  in  its  thirst  for  dominion ;  third,  that  in 
heart  it  would  deny  and  profane  them. 

To  any  one  at  all  familiar  with  the  contro- 
versies that  came  in  with  the  third  century, 
and  the  subsequent  history  of  sophistries  and 
corruptions  of  doctrine,  even  to  the  time  of 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  with  the  vin- 
dictive debates  and  persecutions  which  followed 
that  crisis,  there  is  needed  no  further  illustra- 
tion of  the  prophecy  than  the  facts  furnished. 
In  the  symbolic  language  of  the  prophecy  it 


110       HISTORY  OF  BE  VELATION. 

is  said,  "  Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of 
those  days  the  sun  shall  be  darkened,  the  moon 
shall  not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall 
fall  from  heaven."  The  same  thing  was  said 
by  Joel  of  the  state  of  the  Church  at  the  time 
of  the  Lord's  first  coming,  and  Peter,  as  we 
know,  applied  the  prophecy  to  the  Jewish 
Church.  It  was  the  sun  and  moon  of  the 
Church  that  were  darkened  then ;  and  this  is 
the  meaning  in  the  second  prophecy.  Not  the 
dissolution  of  the  heavens,  but  the  wreck  of 
all  that  is  good  and  true — love,  faith  and 
knowledge  of  heavenly  mysteries — when  the 
Church  is  in  ruins,  is  what  is  meant  by  these 
signs.  When  the  "Sun  of  Righteousness" 
sheds  the  light  of  His  countenance  in  vain  up- 
on an  apostate  Church,  the  thick  clouds  of  its 
sophistries  and  perversions  of  truth  intercept- 
ing its  quickening  heat  and  light ;  when  the 
moon  of  true  faith  cannot  penetrate  the  intel- 
lectual obscurity  with  its  reflected  light ;  when 
the  stars  of  heavenly  knowledge  are  no  more 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  Church,  then 
must  the  Lord  come  with  a  new  manifestation 
of  His  goodness,  and  put  forth  with  new  power 
the  activities  of  His  spirit. 

Catholics  will  not  own  it  of  themselves  that 
such  things  were  ever  true ;  nor  will  Protes- 


HISTOB Y  OF  BE  YELATION.       Ill 

tants  own  it ;  and  it  is  very  natural  that  they 
should  not.  But  Catholics  assert  it  of  Protes- 
tants ;  and  Protestants  assert  it  of  Catholics ; 
and  very  eminent  theologians  of  each  school 
have  proved  the  corruptions  of  faith  and  char- 
ity in  the  other.  No  unprejudiced  man  of  this 
day  need  fear  to  look  back  into  the  past  and 
see  that  what  each  said  of  the  other  was  true 
of  both.  In  the  Church,  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  at  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  we  behold  a  Christianity  paralyzed  in 
its  most  vital  part ;  even  the  activity  of  con- 
troversy died  out  save  as  to  its  political  signifi- 
cance. The  people  debased  and  misguided  ; 
the  courts  vicious  and  sensual ;  the  priests  sunk 
in  a  godless  epicureanism,  or  an  equally  god- 
less intellection ;  religion  almost  non-existent 
apart  from  the  drowsy  formalism  that  had 
usurped  the  holy  place.  Surely  such  a  state 
of  things  answering  to  the  spirit  of  the  pro- 
phecy, was  an  occasion  in  the  Church  for  the 
Lord's  coming,  or  for  a  new  manifestation  of 
Himself. 

What  the  manifestation'of  the  Word  in  the 
flesh  could  not  prevent,  its  repetition  could  not 
cure.  What  was  needed,  then,  for  the  revival 
of  the  Christian  Church,  was  not  a  second 
personal   appearing  of  the  Lord,   but  such  a 


112       IIISTOB  T  OF  BE  VELATION', 

revelation  of  the  Word  as  would  fulfill  and  carry 
forward  the  work  of  His  first  advent.  It 
needed  that  the  Lord  should,  as  He  promised, 
open  the  things  which  He  had  said  and  done  in 
parables,  and  "  show  us  plainly  of  the  Father." 
In  His  first  coming  He  gave  us  the  letter.  His 
second  coming  was  to  give  us  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  and  reveal  His  genuine  glory  and  power 
in  the  clouds  of  the  letter.  And  the  event  has 
proved  the  Apocalypse  in  the  revelation  at  this 
day  of  the  Spiritual  sense  of  the  Word.  The 
glory  of  genuine  truth  shining  through  the 
types  and  appearances.of  the  letter  of  the  Word 
is  "the  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  clouds." 
The  clouds  of  earth  are  not  the  Lord's  chariot, 
any  more  than  the  "  white  horse,"  upon  which 
be  is  said  to  come,  is  a  charger  of  earthly  stock  ; 
these  are  signs.  They  signify  the  literal  im- 
ages and  representatives  by  which  the  divine 
truth  is  mediated  and  embodied  in  earthly  lan- 
guage. The  types  and  symbols  in  the  letter 
of  Holy  Scripture  are  called"  clouds  of  heaven," 
because  they  are  taken  up  out  of  the  natural 
mind  of  men,  as  the  clouds  are  lifted  from  the 
earth — and  because  they  veil,  while  they  con- 
tain, the  heavenly  meaning  of  the  Divine  Word, 
and  thus  mediate  its  light  to  the  natural  mind. 
It  was  thus  that  the  phraseology  of  the  old 


fairiviiisiTT] 

HISTORY  OF  BE^^XAild^^,       li; 

prophets  hid  from  the  eyes  of  the  Jews  what 
to  the  apostles  they  revealed  ;  and  it  is  on  ac- 
count of  this  peculiar  quality  of  the  letter  of  the 
written  Word,  as  veiling  deeper  things  within 
it,  that  it  is  in  all  the  Scriptures  compared  to  a 
cloud.  "  It  was  symbolized  by  the  cloud  which 
rested  upon  Mount  Sinai,  concealing  the 
Lord  from  their  view,  up  into  which  Moses 
w^as  called  when  the  Word  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment began  to  be  revealed.  A  similar  cloud, 
infolding  a  fire  within  itself,  was  shown  to  Eze- 
kiel  in  holy  vision  as  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
first  came  to  Him.  And  the  same  thing  was 
signified  by  that  cloud  which  received  the  Di- 
vine form  of  the  Savior  out  of  the  sight  of  the 
apostles,  as  they  stood,  being  in  vision,  gazing 
up  into  heaven,  as  he  ascended  from  them  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives."  The  clouds  represent- 
ed the  letter  of  the  written  Word  unto  which 
they  were  remanded  when  He  withdrew  from 
them  His  visible  presence.  It  was  the  visual 
image  of  Him  which  they  retained,  and  the 
remembrance  of  His  words  and  works,  which 
under  His  inspiration,  they  wrote,  and  testified 
in  the  Gospel  for  us — this  image  of  His  life 
with  them  and  among  men,  together  with  all 
the  Word  which  testifies  of  Him,  was  repre- 
sented by  the  vision  of  a  cloud  in  which  they 
8 


114       HISTORY  OF  BE VELATIOW. 

saw  Him  ascend,  and  in  which  in  like  manner 
it  was  said  they  shouki  see  Him  come  again. 

Now  the  Lord  makes  His  appearance  in 
these  clouds,  the  types  and  symbols  of  the 
letter  of  His  Word,  as  soon  as  the  heavenly 
meaning  of  the  symbols  are  made  clear,  and 
they  all  are  seen  to  relate  to  Him.  In  the 
revelation  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word, 
which  is  everywhere  veiled  in  its  letter,  every 
type,  every  figure,  and  every  circumstance,  in 
history,  or  psalm,  or  prophecy,  is  seen  to  relate 
to  the  Lord,  and  represent  His  work  for  and 
within  human  souls.^  And  it  is  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  purely  Divine  work  of  open- 
ing the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  revealing  for  the 
Church  the  existence,  nature,  and  particular 
truths  of  their  spiritual  sense,  that  the  Lord 
comes  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  He  comes,  for 
the  whole  Word  reveals  Him,  and  His  work. 
He  comes  in  the  clouds  because  it  is  the  images 
of  the  letter  of  the  word,  which,  being  inter- 
preted, reveal  Him.  This  is  known  because 
it  is  an  accomplished  fact,  and  the  event,  as  I 
said,  has  explained  and  proved  the  Apocalypse. 

This  spiritual  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  rev- 
elation of  the  spiritual  and  eternal  glory  of  the 
written  Word,  as  containing  the  living  Word 
Himself,  has  been  accomplished  by  means  of 


HISTOB  Y  OF  RE  YELATIONi       115 

a  man,  called  and  prepared  to  receive  and  ex- 
pound the  Science  of  Correspondences,  the 
genuine  doctrine  of  the  spiritual  senses  of  the 
Word,  and  the  laws  of  life  in  the  spiritual 
world.  Being  accomplished,  it  carries  its  own 
evidences  within  itself,  and  appeals  not  to  hu- 
man evidence,  but  to  its  own  light  and  power, 
for  the  authentication  of  its  genuineness.  The 
giving  of  the  "Word  was  accommodated  to 
lower  and  lower  states  of  humanity  till  man 
reached  his  lowest  perversity;  then  it  put 
forth  its  power  for  his  redemption,  converting 
and  turning  the  spiritual  course  of  the  race. 
In  the  Gospel  of  that  work  and  the  prophecy 
of  its  fulfiUment  in  the  full  and  crowning  man- 
ifestation of  the  Divine  meaning  in  all  the 
history  of  the  Church,  the  literal  Word  was 
complete  and  the  books  closed.  When  there- 
fore there  was  need  of  light  and  doctrine  for 
the  guidance  of  rational  thought,  and  prepara- 
tion in  natural  science  and  reason  for  the  rev- 
elation of  that  light,  the  Lord,  by  his  own 
mercy  and  wise  means,  "  loosed  the  seals  and 
opened  the  book."  Now  it  is  allowable  and 
possible  in  the  Church  "  to  enter  intellectually 
into  the  mysteries  of  faith,"  and  to  confirm 
the  doctrines  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  word 
in  reason  and  life.    . 


116       HISTOE  Y  OF  BE  VBLATIOJST. 

The  Paradise  which  man  lost  is  to  be  re- 
gained in  the  New  Jerusalem,  which  comes 
down  from  heaven,  in  the  heavenly  doctrines 
of  truth  and  principles  of  life  revealed  for 
men  on  earth.  The  Holy  City  or  Divine  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  contained  in  and  revealed  from 
the  internal  senses  of  the  Word  is  with  men ; 
they  may  study  and  understand  its  truths; 
and  receiving  and  loving  them,  and  living  ac- 
cording to  them,  abide  in  the  city  by  its  river 
of  the  water  of  life,  healed  with  the  leaves  of 
the  Tree  of  Life,  and   sustained  by  its   fruits. 

If  this  general  outline  of  the  history  of  God's 
Word  to  man  has  presented  anything  with 
clearness,  it  is  this  :  fii'st,  that  the  Lord  always 
reveals  His  Word  in  forms  adequate  to  meet 
the  spiritual  states  of  men  as  they  change;  and 
second,  that  any  and  every  form  of  revelation 
must  be  such  as  to  respect  the  freedom  of  man. 
''There  is  not,  there  never  was,  and  never  will 
be,  any  religious  truth  ever  given  to  man  which 
was  not  and  will  not  be  so  given  that,  while 
lie  who  loves  it  may  be  convinced  of  its  truth 
on  rational  grounds,  they  who  have  no  love 
for  it  may  reject  it  on  grounds  which  seem  to 
them  equally  rational."  And  it  will  be  so 
with  the  last  and  crowning  revelation  of  all; 
while  it  is  the  manifestation  of  genuine  spirit- 


HISTOE  Y  OF  BE  VJELATIOJST,        117 

ual  truths  to  spiritual  reason  in  man,  it  can  on- 
ly commend  itself  "  to  whosoever  will  take  the 
water  of  life  freely. ''^  It  comes  to  bless ;  not 
to  curse,  as  it  must  do  with  all  who  should 
accept  its  teachings  for  any  other  reasons  than 
those  of  love  for  the  goodness  to  which  its 
truths  lead.  The  revelation  of  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  Holy  Word  does  not  abrogate  its 
literal  sense,  but  vivifies  and  fills  it  with  new 
meaning  and  power ;  it  comes,  opening  in  all 
the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  the  Lord's 
work  of  redemption,  regeneration  and  salva- 
tion, in  all  dispensations  of  the  Church,  in  all 
planes  of  human  life ;  it  comes  as  the  crown 
of  all  forms  of  revelation  to  gather  them  into 
its  light  and  open  their  true  character  and 
spiritual  meaning.  It  comes,  therefore,  to 
bless  and  do  good,  to  enlarge  men's  views  of 
truth,  their  experience  of  goodness,  their 
sphere  of  use,  and  their  capacity  of  enjoyment; 
and  to  all  ^who  love  these  things,  it  is  able  to 
authenticate  its  Divine  mission,  to  justify  the 
Providence  of  God  in  the  past,  to  gather  into 
its  embrace  the  good  and  the  true  of  all  for- 
mer dispensations,  and  open  out  into  a  career 
of  illimitable  progress.     Amen  ! 


THE    PEIKOIPLE     OF    ADAPTA- 

TIOl^:   OE  THE  EEAL  AJ^B 

APPAEEET  IlSr  THE 

SOEIPTUEES. 

With  the  pure  thou  wilt  show  thyself  pure ;  and  with  the  froward 
thou  wilt  show  thyself  froward.— Ps.  xviii:  26. 

If  we  admit  the  principle  that  every  Di- 
vine communication  to  man  must  be  adapted 
in  its  forms  of  expression  to  the  states  of  life 
and  thought  of  those  to  whom  it  is  given,  we 
shall  see  in  the  text  the  explanation  of  many- 
literal  peculiarities  of  Holy  Scripture.  We 
are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  law  that  ob- 
jects of  thought,  quite  as  much  as  objects  of 
sight,  must  appear  according  to  the  intellect-, 
ual  training  and  spiritual  attitude  of  the  per- 
cipient. Each  man  can  see  only  what  his 
previous  course  of  life  and  habit  of  thought 
enables  him  to  see.  Whatever  lies  wholly 
above  and  outside  of  this  previous  preparation 
(118) 


FBINCIPLE  OF  AI>APTATION,     119 

is  lost  to  him.  Whatever  comes,  by  symbol 
and  accommodated  expression  within  his  range, 
must  at  first  show  itself,  according  to  his  own 
state — that  is,  the  total  resuft  of  his  previous 
life  and  habit.  "  That  only  can  we  see  which 
we  are,"  says  Emerson,  "  and  which  we  make. 
The  weaver  sees  gingham;  the  broker  sees  the 
stock-list ;  the  politician,  the  ward  and  county 
votes ;  the  poet  sees  the  horizon,  and  the 
shores  of  matter  lying  on  the  sky,  the  inter- 
action of  elements — the  large  effect  of  laws 
corresponding  to  the  inward  laws  which  he 
knows,  and  so  are  but  a  kind  of  extension  of 
himself."  This  is  the  law  for  a  generation  as 
well  as  the  individual ;  it  sees  according  to  its 
prevailing  life  and  habit  of  thought.  In  the 
childhood  of  the  world,  the  wise  taught  the 
mysteries  of  life  in  myths;  in  an  evil  age  of 
prowess  and  physical  strength  these  degener- 
ate into  heroic  stories;  in  times  of  popular 
sensuality,  the  remains  of  wisdom  are  veiled 
and  preserved  in  a  spectacular  ritual.  The 
intellectual  vigor  of  New  England  in  the  old 
days  exercised  itself  in  the  severe  logic  of  the 
Puritan  divines ;  an  enervated  society  to-day, 
used  to  sensational  novels  and  plays  and  news- 
papers, demands  a  sensational  pulpit.  With 
a  sense  of  freedom  it  asks  deep  questions ;  but 


120     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATIOJST, 

unused  to  application,  it  will  not  weigh  deep 
answers.  It  demands  what  lies  within  the 
range  of  its  habit ;  even  the  new  in  science 
must  be  "popularized/'  and  the  plausable 
often  answers  all  the  purposes  of  demonstra- 
tion. Thus  it  is  that  every  generation,  as  well 
as  every  individual,  must  see  with  its  own 
eyes ;  and  that  which  would  lift  it  up,  must 
come  down  within  the  range  of  its  vision. 
Even  then  it  will  not  see  that  which  ig  pre- 
sented as  it  is ;  but  at  first  according  to  its 
previous  habit  of  thought  and  coarse  of  life. 
The  actual  must  so  appear,  however,  to  be 
acknowledged  at  all ;  and  if  so  appearing,  it 
brings  to  the  observer  changes  of  life,  it  may 
in  that  way  prepare  him  to  behold  the  real. 
The  law  is  universal  and  necessary  in  the 
nature  of  man. 

Now  apply  this  principle  to  the  explanation 
of  God's  verbal  revelation  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  we  shall  see  at  once  why  with  the  pure  He 
must  show  Himself  pure,  and  with  the  fro- 
ward  He  must  show  Himself  froward.  God 
is  what  He  is,  and  Divine  Truth  is  one  thing 
and  not  another ;  but  every  manifestation  of 
God,  and  every  communication  of  truth,  must 
be  accommodated  in  its  forms  of  expression  to 
the  state  of  life  and  habit  of  thouQ-ht  of  those 


PlilNCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATIOJSr.    m 

to  whom  it  is  given.  The  ISTew  Church  ap- 
plies this  principle  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  and  thus  disarms  skepticism  of  its 
objection.  For,  in  addition  to  the  general 
modifications  in  the  form  of  revelation  which 
we  recognized  in  a  glance  at  the  history  of 
the  successive  dispensations  of  the  Church,  it 
is  apparent  that  all  revelation  must  have  its 
human  as  well  as  its  Divine  side,  and  its 
apparent  as  well  as  its  genuine  truths.  It  is 
to  be  expected,  therefore,  that  much  of  the 
letter  of  Scripture,  being  an  accommodation  of 
truth  to  the  "  froward ''  heart  of  man,  will 
present  only  appearances  of  truth.  In  itself 
it  is  what  it  is,  divine  from  heaven;  but  in  its 
letter  it  is  what  they  were  to  whom  it  was 
given.  Written  otherwise  at  the  first  it  would 
have  been  written  to  no  one,  and  could  not 
have  insured  even  its  own  preservation.  On 
the  one  hand  it  is  truth,  as  the  Jews  and  early 
disciples  of  the  Lord  could  alone  apprehend 
it ;  on  the  other,  it  is  truth  as  apprehended  by 
angels.  Outwardly  it  is,  much  of  it,  froward 
to  the  froward ;  inwardly  it  is  pure  to  the 
pure. 

To  the  eager  waking  child,  all  alive  with 
the  new  discovery  that  it  is  growing  light,  and 
plying   you   with  questions   as  to  whence  it 


122     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION 

comes,  you  show  the  rising  sun.  You  tell 
him  that  every  morning  the  sun  climbs  up 
the  eastern  sky  and  rides  through  the  heavens. 
This  is  only  the  appearance  of  the  fact ;  but 
there  is  a  reality  within  the  appearance,  and 
truth  in  what  you  say.  So  you  teach  the 
vicious,  lying  boy  that  it  is  wicked  to  do  so, 
and  that  God  is  angry  with  the  wicked,  and 
punishes  them.  It  is  not  the  real  truth ;  but 
it  is  the  best  expression  of  the  truth  for  the 
boy.  It  is  the  clearest  presentation  of  the 
whole  certainty  of  moral  retribution  you  can 
make  to  him.  What  you  say  will  not  bear 
rational  criticism,  but  there  is  a  trutli  within 
and  back  of  what  you  say,  that  no  criticism 
can  dislodge,  just  as  the  law  of  planetary 
motion  is  really  involved  in  the  apparent  sun- 
rise. 

So  we  say  of  all  Holy  Scripture  as  the  verbal 
revelation  of  Divine  truth  to  man's  froward 
state.  It  is  adapted  to  the  mental  vision  and 
moral  position  of  those  to  whom  it  was  given. 
It  takes  on,  therefore,  in  much  of  its  teach- 
ing, a  like  froward  form ;  but  the"  it  "  back  of 
the  form  is  genuine  truth.  The  Spiritual  real- 
ity is  hid  in  the  appearance.  And  the  same 
law  which  rules  of  necessity  in  the  giving  of 
revelation,  rules  also  in  man's  understanding 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION,    123 

of  it.  To  the  pure,  that  pure  and  holy  wisdom 
which  lies  back  of  the  froward  showing  is 
revealed.  '  It  is  not  innocence,  but  the  lack  of 
innocence  which  sees  only  immorality  in  the 
Bible ;  and  it  is  not  wisdom  but  empty  con- 
ceit which  finds  only  foolishness  in  it.  This 
law.  would  still  be  in  force  if  the  pure  Divine 
truth  that  is  in  the  Bible  were  revealed  to  us 
afresh  in  Nineteenth  Century  English,  and 
according  to  the  habit  of  thought  of  this  gen- 
eration. It  would  still  be  froward  to  the  fro- 
ward and  pure  to  the  pure.  Men's  difficulties 
might  be  different,  but  they  would  not  be  less 
great.  The  genuine  truths  and  laws  of  Spir- 
itual life,  are  already  within  the  appearances 
of  Holy  Scripture;  just  as  the  truths  of  science 
are  in  the  apparent  order,  and  equally  appa- 
rent disorder  of  nature ;  just  as  the  laws  of  life 
and  providence  are  hid  in  the  involved  and  per- 
plexing but  steadily  advancing  drama  of  his- 
tory. 

Now  I  wish  to  illustrate  this  principle  of 
Divine  adaptation  in  the  explanation  of  (a) 
the  apparent  contradictions  of  the  Bible,  and 
(5)  the  representations  of  God's  part  in  the 
wars  of  the  Jews. 

1.  The  apparent  contradiction  in  the  rep- 
resentation   of  the  Divine  Character.     It  is 


124     PBIJSrCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION 

said  of  the  Lord :  "  Fury  is  not  in  me  "  (Isa. 
xxviii:4);  and  again,  ''God  is  angry  with 
the  wicked  every  day"  (Ps.  vii:ll).  Here 
is  a  direct  contradiction  as  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God;  and  everybody  knows  these  are  not 
exceptional  texts.  We  are  told  that  God  is 
angry  and  that  He  is  love  itself;  that  He  is 
wrathful  and  kind ;  revengeful  and  merciful  ; 
provokable  and  unchangeable  ;  that  He  re- 
pents and  repents  not;  that  He  curses  His 
people  and  punishes  them,  and  that  He  is 
kind  to  the  unthankful  and  the  evil,  and  His 
tender  mercies  over  all  his  works ;  that  He 
forms  light  and  creates  darkness ;  makes  peace 
and  creates  evil ;  that  "  He  hath  mercy  on 
whom  He  will,  and  whom  He  will  he  harden- 
eth."  One  great  question  in  to-day's  relig- 
ious inquiry  is,  whether  or  not  there  is  an  order 
underlying  this  apparent  confusion.  How  are 
these  contradictions  to  be  harmonized  with  the 
Divine  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  ?  Is  there 
a  necessity  in  the  nature  of  things  connecting 
them  with  a  Divine  revelation  to  man  on  earth? 
Or  does  their  existence  in  the  Bible  vacate  its 
claim  to  Inspiration? 

Modern  criticism  has  brought  these  contra- 
dictory representations  in  regard  to  the  Di- 
vine character  into  sharper  outline,  showing 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION',    125 

their  connection  with  the  ages  in  which  they 
were  written,  and  with  subsequent  dogma. 
But  beyond  this  it  has  done  nothing  whatever, 
except  to  deny  in  the  name  of  reason  that  a 
Divine  and  Infallible  God  can  be  both  love 
and  wrath,  or  mislead  His  children  by  repre- 
senting Himself  in  contradictions.  This, 
however,  is  only  a  negation ;  and  true  progress 
never  ends  in  denial.  It  never  closes  its 
eyes  and  returns  to  its  ignorance ;  but  pushes 
on  to  a  new  and  higher  affirmation  of  sufficient 
breadth  to  illustrate  its  difficulties.  The  his- 
tories of  nations  carry  us  through  no  period 
when  there  was  not  universally  the  idea  of 
God,  and  a  consciousness  or  a  belief,  both  in 
His  pleasure  and  displeasure,  in  His  disposi- 
tion and  power  to  reward  and  punish.  And 
this  universal  fact  exalts  the  statements  con- 
cerning the  love  and  wrath  of  God,  in  our 
own  Scripture,  above  the  accidents  of  nation- 
ality, and  shows  them  to  belong  to  universal 
religious  consciousness.  We  may  deny  the 
apparent  contradiction  as  a  reality,  but  we 
cannot  deny  it  as  an  appearance.  And  its 
universality  as  an  appearance  should  encour- 
age us  to  believe  in  some  underlying  law  and 
necessity,  and  to  seek  for  its  discovery. 

We  have  the  help  of  analogy  here.     Con- 


126     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

traductions  are  not  peculiar  to  the  Bible. 
Nature  is  full  of  paradoxes.  There  are  com- 
plications, and  what  appear  to  be  contradic- 
tions, everywhere.  All  knowledge  that  the 
apparent  is  not  the  real,  is  a  discovery.  It  took 
long,  very  long,  to  find  out  that  natural  phe- 
nomena are  not  the  result  of  the  capricious 
tricks  of  pleased  or  insulted  deities.  And 
when  the  old  philosophers  began  to  deny  su- 
perstitions, founded  on  the  appearances  of  irreg- 
ularity and  disorder,  their  first  impulse  was  to 
say  ^*  that  nature  is  seen  to  do  all  things  of  her- 
self, without  the  interference  of  the  gods."  It 
took  long,  very  long,  to  learn  the  laws  which 
are  the  principles  of  order  underlying  the  ap- 
parent disorder  of  the  universe  of  forces  and 
things.  Very  gradually,  as  facts  accumulated 
and  confronted  one  another,  it  became  possible 
for  a  great  mind  here  and  there  to  grasp  the 
whole  in  its  connections,  and  announce  a  uni- 
versal principle  including  the  eccentricities, 
exceptions,  and  contradictions  in  their  relations 
to  the  accustomed  order  of  things.  Only  in 
our  day  has  it  become  known  that  human 
society  also  may  be  studied  in  the  same  way ; 
that  the  apparently  irregular  and  incalculable 
movements  of  human  free  agents, in  their  drift 
and  results,  are  subject  to  laws  so  universal  and 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION-.    127 

constant  that  they  may  be  estimated  at  long 
range  with  astonishing  accuracy.  Such  has 
been  the  progress  of  science,  a  constant  dem- 
onstration of  the  play  of  law  amid  seemingly 
chaotic  and  accidental  facts,  and  successively 
broader  and  more  comprehensive  generaliza- 
tions of  law,  as  exceptions  were  noted  and 
known.  And  so  completely  has  the  principle 
become  established,  that  nature  is  one  orderly, 
continuous,  and  progressive  whole,  that  the  im- 
pulse of  science  is  to,  amass  facts  as  discordant 
and  contradictory  as  possible,  that  they  may 
open  the  way  to  wider  and  ever-widening  gen- 
eralizations of  natural  law.  No  one  feels  any 
uneasiness  because  half  the  scientific  fraternity 
are  searching  with  microscope  and  telescope 
for  unknown  facts.  No  one  fears  that  their 
discovery  will  either  do  injury  to  science  or 
disprove  the  existence  of  the  universe.  And 
this  confidence  rests  simply  on  the  conviction 
that  in  all,  under  all,  over  all,  are  universal 
principles  of  order. 

So  must  it  be,  and  so  will  it  be,  in  theology. 
What  we  ought  to  expect,  and  what  we  ought 
to  push  forward  to,  is  the  discovery  of  the 
universal  spiritual  truths  and  positive  laws 
that  are  back  of  and  constant  in  the  appear- 
ances of  revelation  and  the  facts  of  religious 
consciousness.     The  historical  criticism  of  our 


128     PBINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

day  which  looks  so  threatening,  which  brings 
to  light  such  apparently  mischievous  and  de- 
structive facts,  has  only  served  for  the  most 
part  to  bring  out  the  irregular,  inconstant,  and 
contradictory  things  of  Divine  revelation,  and 
set  them  in  most  damaging  antagonism.  Shall 
we  refuse  to  look  at  the  facts?  No,  for  along 
that  way  lies  relapse  into  ignorance.  Shall 
we  deny  all  revelation,  and  rest  there?  No, 
for  there  is  no  rest.  Revelation  itself  is  a  fact 
that  will  not  be  denied  any  more  than  the  out- 
ward world  of  the  senses.  What,  then,  should 
we  do  but  reach  out  to,  and  pray  for,  those 
Divineand  spiritual  unities  which  comprehend 
and  harmonize  all  seemingdiscrepenciesinthe 
revealed  and  recorded  ways  of  God  to  man. 
This  we  must  do. 

Coming,  then,  to  the  contradictions  of  the 
Bible  concerning  the  character  and  disposition 
of  God,  let  us  rise  from  the  letter  to  the  spirit, 
and  inquire  what  is  the  whole  purport  of  the 
revelation.  The  truth,  that  God  is  love  is 
really  the  teaching  of  the  whole  of  Divine 
revelation,  when  direct  teaching  respecting 
God  is  given.  For  the  Scriptures  are  not 
merely  a  revelation  of  God.  They  are  also  a 
revelation  of  man  ;  of  the  states  of  good  and 
evil  in  man,  and  their  consequences.     But  the 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION.    129 

whole  spirit  of  the  Word  breathes  one  truth, 
with  respect  to  God  Himself  and  His  altitude 
toward  man,  namely,  that  He  is  love  itself — 
pure,  perfect  and  unselfish  love.  And  this  is 
what  reason  demands.  It  refuses  to  believe 
that  there  can  be  in  the  Divine  nature  any- 
thing answering  to  anger,  hatred  and  revenge. 
It  refuses  to  believe  that  he  is  changeable  or 
swayed  by  likes  and  dislikes.  However  men 
may  feel  toward  Him,  or  however  they  may 
feel  and  act  towards  each  other,  it  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  God  possible  that  He  should  feel 
anything  but  the  most  unselfish  and  constant 
love  toward  them.  We  may  hate  Him  and 
His  laws,  but  He  never  hated  nor  desired  to 
punish  us.  His  laws  are  only  the  wise  ways 
of  His  love  with  us.  They  are  the  ways  of 
His  infinite  wisdom,  and  are  good  for  us,  and 
necessary  for  us,  because  they  are  the  true 
order  of  our  life,  the  only  means  to  the  per- 
fection and  happiness  His  love  has  ordained 
for  us.  And  because  His  laws  are  laws  of  love 
they  change  not.  They  are  the  eternal  order 
of  spiritual  life,  revealed  and  written  in  the 
Word  only  that  we  may  know  them  and  do 
them.  All  the  precepts  and  laws  which  are 
summed  up  in  love  to  God  and  the  neighbor, 
are  enjoined  upon  us,  simply  because  they  are 
9 


130     PBINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

laws,  that  is,  the  ways  or  true  methods  of 
spiritual  life.  They  are  commanded  because 
they  are  written  in  our  spiritual  organism,  and 
are  the  only  ways  by  which  we  may  grow  into 
harmony  and  conjunction  with  God  and  enter 
into  His  joy.  They  are  the  ordinances  of 
infinite  wisdom  for  the  ends  of  infinite  love. 

Such  is  the  love  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
His  laws  on  the  divine  side  and  to  the  spiritu- 
al view ;  but  how  must  they  appear  to  the 
diseased  and  abnormal  vision  of  disobedience  ? 
"To  the  pure  thou  wilt  show  thyself  pure; 
to  the  froward  thou  wilt  show  thyself  fro- 
ward."  It  is  an  unfailing  law  that  the  appear- 
ance of  spiritual  truth,  and  of  spiritual  things 
generally,  is  and  must  ever  be  in  perfect  cor- 
respondence with  the  states  of  the  percipient 
subjects.  If  that  is  a  state  of  order,  of  good 
disposition,  and  rational  honesty,  spiritual 
things  will  be  seen  and  appreciated,  when  re- 
vealed, in  their  own  light.  If  this  state  be 
one  of  disorder  it  will  reflect  itself  back  upon 
God  and  spiritual  laws,  and  see  in  them  only 
hatred  and  vindictive  punishment.  The  world 
is  full  of  illustrations  of  this  law,  and  like 
every  true  generalization  it  solves  mysteries. 

Take,  for  example,  the  laws  of  physical 
health.     The  man  who  is  wise  to  learn  them 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION.    131 

and  obey  them,  and  has  become  through  obedi- 
ence healthy  and  vigorous,  not  only  appreci- 
ates those  laws,  but  rejoices  in  their  benifi- 
cence.  He  sees  that  they  are  wise,and  ordered  for 
comfort  and  use.  He  sees  that  even  the  pain 
that  follows  disobedience  is  part  of  their  be- 
nificent  order  to  save  the  reckless  from  self-de- 
struction. But  the  man  who  has  broken  all 
the  physical  commandments,  and  become  a 
body  of  disease,  looks  upon  nature  as  a  hard 
mother,  and  her  laws  as  a  very  arbitrary  set 
of  regulations.  This  is  only  saying,  what  we 
have  seen  to  be  true,  that  every  one  sees  the 
wisdom  and  benijficence  of  a  truth,  according 
to  his  own  state  with  respect  to  it.  The  same 
truth  does  not  appear  the  same  to  persons  in 
different  states.  To  one  it  stands  out  clearly 
and  defined  in  its  grandeur  and  relations ;  he 
is  delighted  with  it.  Another  only  dimly  ap- 
prehends it.  To  another  it  has  no  signifi- 
cance; it  has  neither  form  nor  comeliness  that 
he  should  desire  it.  To  another,  who  has 
been  acting  or  believing  contrary  to  it,  it  is 
positively  hateful.  It  does  not  appear  to  him 
as  truth,  but  as  a  falsity.  It  is  really  the 
same  truth  that  presents  such  various  aspects 
to  different  individuals;  the  cause  of  the  vari- 
ous appearances  is  not  changes  in  the  truth, 


132     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

but  the  reflection  of  their   different   mental 
states. 

Now,  if  this  be  a  law  of  the  human  under- 
standing with  respect  to  truth,  and  of  the 
human  will  with  respect  to  goodness,  it  ex- 
plains the  contradictions  of  the  Bible.  For 
the  Bible  is  a  revelation  of  God  and  the  laws 
of  spiritual  life,  and  the  consequences  of  obe- 
dience or  disobedience,  to  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men;  and  the  truths  respecting  these 
things  to  reach  them  at  all  must  appear  vari- 
ously to  their  different  states,  and  quite  oppo- 
sitely to  the  evil  and  the  good.  Accordingly, 
there  are  in  the  Word  both  genuine  truths 
and  apparent  truths.  Truth  as  it  is,  and  is  ap- 
prehensible to  enlightened  reason ;  and  truth 
as  it  appears,  as  it  can  only  appear,  to  sensu- 
ous thought.  That  "God  is  good  to  all,  and 
His  mercies  over  all  his  works''  is  a  genuine 
truth.  That  He  is  angry  with  the  wicked  and 
punishes  them,  is  an  apparent  truth.  God  is 
goodness  itself,  and  truth  itself;  He  desires 
the  spiriutal  regeneration  and  happiness  of  all 
His  children;  He  has  so  created  man  that  he 
may  by  orderly  and  obedient  observance  of 
the  laws  of  his  spiritual  nature,  become  con- 
joined to  Him  in  reciprocal  love  and  use. 
These  are  genuine  truths.     They  are  abund- 


PRINCirLE  OF  ADAPTATIOW.     133 

antly  taught  in  plain  declarations  and  precepts. 
They  are  satisfactory  to  enlightened  reason. 
They  are  the  very  spirit  and  life  of  the  Word; 
and  its  spiritual  or  internal  sense  teaches 
nothing  contrary  to  them.  But  how  would 
they  appear  to  an  idolatrous,  self-seeking, 
sensuous  people?  How  would  they  appear 
to  a  people  who  had  no  conception  of  love 
but  as  self-love;  no  idea  of  happiness  but 
lust;  no  idea  of  law  but  as  license  to  do 
their  own  sweet  will  ?  If  Divine  love  would 
reach  and  restrain  such  a  people,  and  lead 
them  to  compel  themselves  to  obey  even  the 
very  lowest  forms  of  the  laws  of  their  spiritual 
life,  must  He  not  appeal  to  their  self-love  and 
to  their  sense  of  pain  ?  The  first  truth  for 
such  to  learn,  the  first  truth  for  us  all  to  learn, 
is  that  the  laws  of  God  are  the  laws  of  man's 
life ;  that  they  are  all  keyed  to  beneficent  re- 
sults ;  and  that  if  they  are  disobeyed  they  will 
work  most  terrible  spiritual  mischief.  The 
punishment  which  attends  the  violation  of 
spiritual  laws  is  not  less  beneficent  than  the 
pain  that  attends  the  violation  of  physical  law. 
It  is  itself  a  revelation  of  Divine  mercy.  But 
if  denounced  against  the  wicked,  how  should 
they  perceive  it  other  than  as  a  threat  of  anger 
and   wrath.     If  not  made  to  realize  it,  they 


134     PBINGIFLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

would  not  heed  it ;  and  if  brought  clean  home 
to  them,  they  could  not  understand  it  as  any- 
thing but  the  punishment  inflicted  by  an  of- 
fended Deity.  How  is  it  with  ourselves?  When 
we  have  broken  the  sum  of  the  commandments, 
and  have  not  done  to  men  as  we  would  they 
should  do  to  us,  is  not  the  first  keen  pang  of 
remorse  a  sense  of  Divine  displeasure  ?  How 
is  it  in  the  whole  course  of  our  experience  of 
the  consequences  of  disorder  ?  Do  we  not  con- 
tinually complain  that  the  laws  of  Providence 
are  unjust;  that  the  ways  of  God  are  not 
equal?  In  this  is  latent  the  whole  appear^ 
ance  of  the  anger  of  God.  God  is  good,  but 
He  is  true  ;  His  truth  is  the  law  of  human  life 
and  happiness,  and  it  is  good.  This  is  the 
reality.  But  the  appearance  is,  to  those  who 
obey  the  law  of  life,  that  God  is  gO(3d  and  His 
ways  merciful ;  to  the  evil  and  disobedient, 
that  God  is  kind  only  to  those  who  fear  and 
obey  Him,  and  is  angry  with,  and  punishes 
those  who  do  not. 

Can  we  not  see,  therefore,  that  the  con- 
tradictory representations  concerning  God's 
character,  have  their  ground  and  necessity  in 
the  spiritual  law  that  men  must  severally  see 
truth  according  to  their  state  ?  To  reveal 
Himself  and  His  laws  to  all  men,  the  evil  as 


PBIJSrCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION'.    135 

well  as  the  good,  the  sensual  and  depraved  as 
well  as  the  rational,  God  must  necessarily  be 
represented  variously  and  even  oppositely. 
There  have  been  whole  generations  of  people, 
there  are  now  in  our  own  cities  whole  classes 
of  people,  to  whom  the  revelation  of  the  real- 
ity of  God,  and  of  spiritual  law  could  be 
made  no  otherwise.  If  the  selfish  man  resists 
or  punishes  any  one,  it  is  from  anger  ;  he  is 
furious  and  acts  wildly  from  revenge.  If  he 
have  an  idea  of  God,  he  can  only  conceive  of 
Him  as  enraged  and  punishing  men,  as  he 
himself  would  do  if  they  had  transgressed 
his  law.  Fear  is  the  only  sentiment  in  such 
a  man  open  to  the  Divine  appeal.  To  fear 
accordingly  the  Lord  appeals;  if  by  any 
means  the  disobedient  may  be  led  to  observe 
the  laws  6f  righteousness  and  begin  the  work 
of  reformation.  The  fact  is,  that  we  are  de- 
pendent upon  God,  and  our  happiness  depend- 
ent upon  obedience  to  His  spiritual  laws. 
This  eternal  necessity  appears  to  obscure,  sen- 
suous and  wicked  minds  as  the  Divine  om- 
nipotence, pleased  or  displeased,  rewarding  or 
punishing.  The  appearance  is  the  necessary 
aspect  of  a  reality.  It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be 
destroyed  with  the  simple-minded;  though  it 
is  to  be  avoided    as  a  doctrine  of  the  Church. 


136     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

We  do  very  well  to  say  the  sun  rises  and  sets. 
We  cannot  very  well  say  otherwise.  It  is  not 
the  fact,  but  the  appearance  of  the  fact.  It 
will  always  be  true  to  the  senses.  And  so 
forever,  and  forever,  it  will  be  true  that  "  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom." 

2.  Another  class  of  apparent  contradictions, 
is  illustrated  in  the  representations  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility. It  is  said  in  the  decalogue,  "  I 
the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting 
the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me"  (Ex.  xx  5)  ;  and  again,  "  The 
soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die.  The  son  shall 
not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father,  neither  shall 
the  father  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  son." 
These  seemingly  contradictory  texts  are  ex- 
plained in  the  truth  which  lies  back  of  both, 
and  which  can  only  be  overlooked  by  an  ex- 
clusive attention  to  one  or  the  other. 

Nothing  can  be  more  obvions  than  the  axiom 
that  no  man  is  guilty  for  what  took  place  be- 
fore he  was  born.  Whatever  the  truth  may 
require  us  to  believe,  it  certainly  does  not  re- 
quire us  to  begin  with  an  absurdity.  "In 
Adam's  fall  we  sinned  all,"  is  a  sentiment  that 
is  repugnant  to  all  rational  thought.  The 
Scriptures   teach   that  "  the  iniquity  of   the 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION',    137 

fathers  is  visited  upon  the  children,"  and  by  a 
very  curious  perversity  of  understanding,  the 
word  "iniquity"  has  been  read  to  mean  pre- 
cisely as  though  it  were  "  guilt "  or  "  punish- 
ment." It  is,  however,  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Guilt  is  not  transmissible ;  and  it  is  only  a 
gross  caricature  of  Divine  justice  to  repre- 
sent it  as  demanding  the  punishment  of  count- 
less posterity  for  the  sin  of  a  single  progenitor. 
We  are  to  put  utterly  away  all  such  ideas  of 
"  original  sin  "  as  define  it  to  be  the  entailed 
guilt  of  a  transgression  over  w^hich  we  had  no 
control,  and  in  which  we  could  have  no  moral 
responsibility.  But  then,  we  are  not  to  con- 
clude, on  the  other  hand,  that  there  is  no 
hereditary  transmission,  and  that  the  iniqui- 
ties of  the  fathers  are  in  no  way  carried  over 
to  the  children. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  erroneous  thought 
upon  this  subject  from  the  profound  and  gen- 
eral ignorance  as  to  the  substantial  and  organic 
form  of  the  human  soul.  Man  is  not  an  ab- 
straction, but  a  spiritual,  organic  form.  And 
the  effect  of  disobedience  to  the  laws  of  spiritu- 
al life,  is  the  perversion  of  the  organic  func- 
tions of  the  soul,  and  consequent  deterioration 
of  its  substantial  form.  Sin  is  a  spiritual  dis- 
ease ;  a  disease  of  an  immortal  organism.  And, 


138     PBIJSrCIFLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

therefore,  as  it  becomes  deep-seated  and  eronic 
by  disobedience,  and  is  not  brought  to  the  heal- 
ing touch  of  the  Divine  Physician  by  repent- 
ance, it  issues  in  confirmed  spiritual  death. 
Every  one  writes  the  record  of  his  own  sin, 
and  lays  up  his  punishment  in  his  own  soul  in 
its  perverted  spiritual  forms.  Hereditary  sin, 
or  transmitted  guilt,  is  an  idea  therefore  which 
cannot  be  expressed  except  in  terms  of  self- 
contradiction.  But  hereditary  evil  is  a  differ- 
ent thing.  It  is  the  transmitted  deterioration  of 
the  substantial  human  form,  the  transmission  of 
a  perverted  spiritual  organism.  It  is  thus  that 
the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  is  visited  upon  the 
childen.  **  Transmissive  dispositions  and  pro- 
clivities to  evil,  coming  down  a  long  line  of 
tainted  ancestry,  and  gathering  strength  and 
volume  on  their  way  by  every  generation  that 
transmits  them,  is  a  fact  that  is  universal,  and 
so  an  irreversible  law  of  human  discent."  This 
is  illustrated  not  only  in  that  the  race  lies  in 
spiritual  darkness,  each  generation  receiving 
from  the  past  its  gloomy  superstitions  and  pre- 
dispositions to  evil,  but  also  in  the  persistency 
with  which  nations  and  families  perpetuate 
their  characteristics.  Time  and  culture  and 
physical  environment  exert  their  modifying 
influence  within  a  certain  range,  but  "  during 


PBINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION.    139 

three  or  four  generations,  and,  indeed,  during 
any  known  historical  periods,  they  never  break 
up  the  type."  Types  of  character,  and  the 
image  of  these  in  the  physical  form,  are  trans- 
mitted with  such  constancy  and  tendf^icy  to 
accumulation,  that  the J^rained  observer,  as  soon 
as  he  looks  on  the  human  form,  though  it  be 
that  of  the  sleeping  child,  knows  the  race  and 
sometimes  the  tribe  and  family  to  which  it  be- 
longs. Every  fact  of  observation  and  exper- 
ience, every  truth  of  the  Word  of  God,  confirms 
the  doctrine  that  the  fathers  transmit  to  the 
children,  not  character,  but  modifications  of 
substantial  organic  form,  which  qualify  the 
inflowing  life  and  create  propensities  and  pro- 
clivities which  had  been  confirmed  in  the  vol- 
untary lives  of  the  progenitors.  The  whole 
subject  is  illustrated  in  hereditary  predisposi- 
tion to  diseases  of  body.  Disease  is  not  trans- 
mitted ;  but  a  perverted  organism,  which  under 
the  excitement  resulting  from  carelessness,  or 
from  favoring  abuses,  is  felt  as  a  propensity 
and  developed  in  disease.  And  every  confir- 
mation of  the  disease  results  in  the  still  further 
deterioration  of  the  organism  and  its  trasmis- 
sion  to  its  own  offspring.  A  nd  this  is  the  real 
image  of  the  corresponding  spiritual  fact. 
When  evil  has  become  fixed  in  mind  and  will 


140     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

and  life,  and  thus  perverted  the  function  and 
form  of  the  soul,  that  determination  of  the  sub- 
stantial spiritual  form  is  carried  over  to  the 
oflPspring ;  and  under  the  excitation  of  influx 
from  attendant  evil  spirits  it  is  perceived  as  a 
propensity.  And  if  its  transmission  is  not  ar- 
rested by  regeneration,  through  the  shunning 
of  evil  because  it  is  sin,  the  propensity  is  trans- 
mitted with  accumulated  power  to  the  next 
generation.  It  is  thus  that  we  bear  in  us  the 
marks  of  our  lineage  in  general  and  in  particu- 
lar; thus,  that  the  fathers'  sins  have  impress- 
ed upon  our  spiritual  organism  such  abnormal 
bent  and  perversity  as  had  resulted  in  them- 
selves, and  which  are  felt  by  us  as  propensities 
to  evil.  The  Lord  is  said  to  visit  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  in  accommo- 
dation to  the  universal  appearance  to  the  nat- 
ural and  sensual  man,  that  the  consequences  of 
his  own  depravity  are  visited  by  omnipotence. 
The  real  truth  which  thus  appears  is,  that  they 
are  actually  and  necessarily  carried  over. 

But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  truth.  If 
this  alone  were  known,  it  might  seem  just  to 
say,  "  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and 
the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  But 
this  proverb  of  Israel  the  Lord  declares  to  be 
a  very  foolish  meditation  for  the  children.     It 


PBIJSrCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION'.    141 

is  true  that  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  is 
visited  upon  the  children  as  predisposition  and 
propensity  to  evil.  But  the  truth  is  worth 
more  as  a  warning  to  parents  than  as  an  ex- 
cuse for  children.  For  this  also  is  true,  that 
those  propensities  are  balanced  by  angelic  and 
Divine  influences,  so  that  every  soul  is  free  to 
resist  them  and  turn  from  them.  A  pro- 
pensity is  not  a  sin  ;  there  is  no  transmission  of 
guilt ;  there  is  no  punishment  except  for  the 
evil  that  passes  into  deed  through  our  volitions. 
In  some  sense  it  is  true  that  we  inherit  the 
consequences,  in  a  deterioated  spiritual  or- 
ganism, of  the  sins  of  our  forefathers.  But 
that  neither  increases  nor  diminishes  our  re- 
sponsibility an"  iota.  It  has  no  bearing  on 
our  eternal  destiny  unless  we  are  indifferent. 
It  may  increase  the  severity  of  our  tempta- 
tions ;  but  the  omnipotence  of  the  Redeemer 
is  ours  if  we  choose  to  resist  the  propensities 
which  we  inherit.  "Now,  lo  !  if  one  beget 
a  son  that  seeth  all  his  father's  sins  which 
he  hath  done,  and  considereth,  and  doeth  not 
such  like,  he  shall  not  die  for  the  iniquity  ^of 
his  father — he  shall  surely  live."  You  must 
see,  therefore,  that  these  two  texts  are  only 
apparently  contradictory  ;  they  are  harmon- 
ized in  the  light  of  a  higher  law  superior  to 
either,  and  immanent  in  both. 


142     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

II.  We  come  iiow  to  examine  in  tlie  light 
of  the  principle  of  adaptation,  the  Bible  record 
of  the  wars  of  extermination  against  the 
Canaanitish  nations,  instituted  and  carried  on, 
it  would  appear,  by  express  command  of  God. 
The  strongest  objections  are  urged  against  the 
Inspiration  of  the  Mosaic  Scriptures  on  the 
score  of  these  wars.  They  are  denounced  as 
measures  of  enormous  cruelty  and  the  most 
indefensible  injustice;  and  the  inspiration  of 
the  record  which  appears  to  ascribe  them  to  the 
command  of  God,  is  repudiated  as  impossible 
of  Christian  belief  I  hope  to  show  the  value 
of  the  doctrine  announced  in  making  some 
helpful  and  necessary  discriminations  here 
also. 

(a.)  Consider  the  human  side  of  these 
wars.  As  facts  of  history,  the  wars  of  the  Jews 
were  no  more  pleasing  to  God  than  any  other 
wars.  God  is  not  the  author  of  war.  That 
He  is  so  is  only  an  appearance  to  selfish  man, 
in  obedience  to  the  universal  law  of  "  froward 
to  the  froward."  The  devil  is  universally  the 
presiding  genius  in  the  declaration  of  war,  and 
field-marshal  in  its  conduct.  This  is  admitting 
all,  and  more  than  all,  that  objectors  to  revela- 
tion urge  against  the  wars  of  the  Jews.  But 
it  is  admitting  only  the  truth.     Every  war,  in 


PBINGIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION'.    143 

common  with  every  murder,  every  lie,  every 
slander,  every  vice  of  every  hue,  is  instituted 
at  the  express  command  of  self-love,  whose 
essence  is  the  love  of  evil.  It  is  the  "  I,  my- 
*  self,"  principle  of  the  depraved  heart  that  does 
all  the  wrong  and  mischief,  that  incites  every 
strife  and  quarrel,  large  or  small,  the  world 
over.  This  is  just  as  true  of  all  the  wars  per- 
petrated in  the  name  of  Christianity  as  it  is  of 
the  wars  of  the  Jews  in  the  name  of  God 
Almighty.  It  is  just  as  true  of  wars  waged 
in  the  name  of  freedom  as  it  is  of  the  wars 
of  empire.  Search  throughout  universal  his-- 
tory,  and  you  will  find  that  latent  in  every 
war  as  the  instigating  and  controlling  motive, 
has  been  some  form,  or  other  of  the  lust  of 
dominion  or  greed  of  gain.  The  wars  of  the 
Jews  had  no  other  origin  and  inspiration ; 
and  in  this  were  essentially  like  all  other  wars 
whatsoever. 

You  are  ready,  perhaps,  to  dispute  this,  not- 
withstanding all  that  you  know  confirms  it. 
Out  of  war  has  grown  progress  and  the  devel- 
opment of  human  interests;  and  how  is  this 
fact  to  be  reconciled  with  its  infernal  origin? 
By  remembering  another  fact,  that  is  often 
forgotten,  namely,  that  the  devil  is  not  the  su- 
preme ruler  of  the  universe,  and  that  his  per- 


144     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

mitted  existence  brings  him  within  the  police 
regulations  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  You  will 
remember  that  it  is  written  of  God,  "If  I  make 
my  bed  in  hell,  behold  thou  art  there."  You 
will  remember  that  it  is  elsewhere  said  of  His 
government,  that  "He  will  make  the  wrath 
of  man  to  praise  Him,  and  the  remainder  of 
wrath  He  will  restrain."  He  who  put  free 
will  into  the  making  of  man  knew  the  issues 
of  it.  He  knew  that  man  would  fall  into 
self  and  separate  himself  from  God;  and 
creation  was  prepared  for  the  event  as  if  it  had 
already  happened.  The  eternal,  inherent,  and 
organic  laws  of  the  Divine  government  cover 
not  only  its  provisions,  but  its  permissions 
also ;  and  are  controlling  always.  They  not 
only  lead  on  to  the  good  provided,  but  they 
follow  into  the  evil  permitted.  Yea,  they  are 
there  beforehand,  and  the  limit  is  set  precisely 
at  that  line  where  are  evolved  great,  good  and 
sublime  issues,  more  than  the  wit  of  man  con- 
ceived or  his  motive  of  self-interest  intended. 
There  has  rarely  been  found  a  power  of 
holy  fervor  strong  enough  to  cope  with  the 
ambition  of  dominion.  In  the  drama  of  his- 
tory, the  saints  have  never  been  able  to  as- 
sume the  leading  role.  They  have  rarely  had 
the  skill,  energy,  intelligence,  force  of  will,  to 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION'.    145 

cope  with  the  ambition  of  dominion,  and  keep 
it  even  out  of  the  institutions  of  the  Church. 
The  ardor  of  genuine  goodness  in  men  is  to  the 
fiery  zeal  of  self-love,  as  the  heat  of  kindling 
embers  to  that  of  a  seven -times  heated  fur- 
nace. And  this  fire  of  self-love  evolves  gigan- 
tic powers.  The  strongest  motives  sharpen 
wit  and  concentrate  ability ;  and  the  ambition 
to  be  greatest,  richest,  or  most  honored  for 
brilliant  achievement,  is  the  impelling  force 
that  develops  strength  in  the  complicated  ma- 
chinery of  government,  commerce,  and  organ- 
ized industries.  The  faint,  feeble  beginnings 
of  goodness  in  men  are  inadequate  to  kindle 
an}'  such  force  of  character,  sagacity,  and  per- 
sistency. The  children  of  this  world  are  wis- 
er and  more  efficient  in  their  generation  than 
the  children  of  light ;  and  God  turns  to  use  the 
most  effective  instrumentalities.  But  the  laws 
are  ordained  beforehand  in  the  constitution  of 
man,  and  of  society,  which  alone  can  conser- 
vate  those  fiery  impulses  and  struggling  antag- 
onisms, and  outof  individual  self-seeking  volve 
the  common  good.  In  the  permitted  existence 
of  every  evil,  and  selfish  espousal  of  every 
cause,  is  set  its  limit :  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go, 
but  no  farther." 

You  must  work  out  for  yourselves  the  ap- 
10  _ 

:tjhi7iesiit] 


146      PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

plication  of  this  suggested  key  to  history,  for 
we  must  not  suiffer,  ourselves  now  to  be  drawn 
too  far  from  the  main  theme.  But  they  only 
read  history  aright  who  thus  see  God  in  it ; 
not  providing  wars  and  cruel  wrongs  and  in- 
vasion of  personal  rights,  but  setting  them  off 
one  against  the  other,  and  working  out  pur- 
poses of  which  the  actors  had  no  conception. 
And  this,  which  is  true  of  all  history,  is 
especially  true  of  the  Cliildren  of  Israel ;  for 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  was  essentially  dra- 
matic and  representative.  The  Israelites  were 
chosen  and  called,  not  because  of  their  right- 
eousness and  spiritual  character,  but  because 
of  the  particular  bent  of  their  selfishness  and 
superstition.  It  is  again  and  again  said  of 
them  that  they  were  not  chosen  for  their  right- 
eousness, nor  for  their  own  benefit,  as  particu- 
lar favorites  of  God  above  all  people ;  but  for 
their  peculiar  fitness  to  prepare  for  and  to 
represent  and  typify  the  ends  of  God  in  the 
coming  Christianity.  There  are  reasons  here 
which  cannot  be  entered  at  this  time,  but  it  is 
manifest  upon  the  face  of  its  history  that  their 
dispensation  was  in  all  respects  a  representa- 
tive one.  And  for  such  a  purpose  their  very 
absence  of  spirituality  and  their  peculiar  ex- 
ternal character  especially  fitted  them.     Their 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION.     147 

vanity  was  flattered  with  being  selected  by 
the  God  of  'their  fathers,  whom  they  had  for- 
gotten in  their  idolatry.  Their  peculiar 
superstitions  rendered  them  susceptible  to 
wonders  and  signs;  and  their  selfish  greed 
and  fear  gave  to  these  signs  a  controlling 
power  over  their  conduct.  Their  peculiar  ex- 
ternal character  rendered  them  capable,  beyond 
those  more  receptive  of  the  interiors  of  religion, 
bf  attending  to  the  minutiae  of  ceremonial  wor- 
ship, and  of  preserving  it  from  a  sense  of  the 
sanctity  of  its  forms.  Their  "stiff-neckedness," 
their  "lack  of  faith,"  and  their  idolatrous  love 
of  ceremonials,  were  the  very  qualities  which 
rendered  them  capable  of  being  led,  and  driven, 
through  a  history  in  which  should  be  set  and 
dramatized  spiritual  things  of  which  they  were 
hopelessly  ignorant.  With  them,  as  with  no 
other  people,  therefore,  the  idea  of  God  and 
the  hope  of  Messiah  could  be  preserved  unto 
the  time  of  its  fulfillment.  With  them,  as 
with  no  other  people,  could  be  enacted  those 
revolutions  in  the  nations  sunk  in  the  most 
hopeless  idolatry — revolutions  which  were  the 
necessary  preparation  for  Christianity.  By 
them,  as  by  no  other  people,  the  materials 
could  be  furnished,  and  the  Holy  Word  be 
written,  and  preserved  in  the  form  in  which 


148     PBIJSrCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION'. 

we  now  have  it,  as  the  form  best  adapted  to 
render  permanent  the  blessings  of  Divine  reve- 
lation, to  make  them  the  most  extensive,  and 
to  secure  them  from  perversion. 

Their  history  is  to  be  read,  therefore,  and 
their  wars  of  extermination  considered  in  the 
light  of  this  representative  character  of  their 
dispensation.  As  wars  they  were  no  more  and 
no  less  lovely  than  certain  modern  ones  to 
which  we  ascribe  justice,  and  out  of  which 
have  certainly  grown  beneficient  results.  War 
is  never  heavenly ;  but  if  vice  ever  reached 
its  limit  and  needed  to  be  overthrown  by  the 
tearing  down  of  its  strongholds,  then  most 
justly  was  punishment  inflicted  on  the  Can- 
aanites.  If  a  race  ever  destroys  its  capacity 
to  benefit  mankind,  or  to  save  its  posterity 
from  the  darkness  of  its  own  evils,  surely  the 
nations  of  Canaan  had  reached  that  limit 
when  their  extirpation  became  a  mercy.  The 
extirpation  of  the  wicked  when  their  wicked- 
ness has  reached  its  summit,  is  a  measure  of 
merciful  necessity.  In  the  providence  of 
God  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  traditional  seat 
of  the  ancient  churches,  was  to  become  the 
theatre  of  representative  rites  and  of  a  Divine 
Incarnation,  from  which  should  spring  a  new 
religious  life  on  earth.    The  nations  that  over- 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION,    149 

ran  the  land  had  acted  their  part,  and  run 
the  length  of  license,  and  come  to  the  limit 
of  permission.  They  were  to  be,  and  they 
were,  displaced  by  a  people  who,  though  rebel- 
lious, could  yet  be  led  into  and  kept  in  holy 
externals.  They  were  fit  instruments,  as  a 
holy  and  righteous  people  could  not  have  been, 
even  if  the  Lord  had  found  any  such,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  that  which  needed  to  be 
done  in  the  economy  of  His  providence,  which 
looked  to  all  that  has  grown  out  of  it,  and  the 
still  greater  blessings  that  are  yet  to  grow  out 
of  it  in  the  brightening  eras  of  a  spiritual 
Christianity.  As  matter  of  human  history, 
therefore,  the  displacement  of  the  Canaani- 
tish  nations  by  the  Children  of  Israel,  is  to  be 
regarded  as  the  displacement  of  one  evil  by  a 
less,  with  a  view  to  a  providential  purpose  of 
good  to  humanity.  It  was  equally  a  mercy 
to  the  Canaanites  and  to  the  world,  if  it  is 
ever  a  mercy  to  cut  off  a  hopelessly  tainted 
generation. 

(b.)  Let  us  now  consider  the  record  of 
these  wars  as  a  part  of  the  written  Word  of 
God.  In  common  with  all  the  Israelitish  his- 
tory, it  is  representative  and  typical  of  spirit- 
ual things,  the  affairs  of  that  people  having 
been  constantly  overruled  for  this  purpose.    It 


150     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

is,  as  I  have  said,  a  grand  drama.  The  first 
scene  commences  with  the  calling  of  Abra- 
ham, and  the  last  concludes  with  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  by  the  E-omans.  All  their 
patriarchs  and  kings,  priests  and  prophets, 
and  indeed  the  whole  people,  were  the  actors 
in  this  wonderful  drama.  The  characters 
represented  were  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  to 
all  that  He  performed  and  suffered  in  His  con- 
flicts with  our  spiritual  enemies  for  the  re- 
demption of  mankind ;  His  Church  in  the 
steps  of  her  progress  from  carnal  to  celestial ; 
and  the  individual  member  of  the  Church  in 
all  the  stages  of  his  corresponding  advance- 
ment. Everything  which  creates  opposition 
is  also  shown — the  obstacles  to  be  overcome 
and  the  lapses  to  be  dreaded,  as  well  as  the 
blessings  to  be  obtained. 

Some  of  you  may  not  know  that  this  is 
true,  because  it  has  not  been  shown  you.  But 
consider  if  it  were  desirable  whether  the  Chil- 
dren of  Israel  were  not  just  such  a  people  as 
would  be  capable  of  enacting  such  a  represen- 
tative history.  Consider,  if  it  were  enacted 
and  desirable  to  be  preserved,  whether  the 
record  of  their  history  as  found  in  the  sacred 
scriptures  is  not  such  as  would  be  most  scrup- 
ulously guarded  and  handed  down  by  them. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION,    151 

Consider  whether  its  accommodations  to  their 
idea  of  God  as  being  One  and  Almighty,  but 
yet  such  a  One  as  themselves ;  its  interpola- 
ted myths  appealing  to  their  wonder ;  its  his- 
torical exaggerations  appealing  to  their  vani- 
ty, were  not  all  necessary  to  their  reception  of 
it,  and  likely  to  insure  its  preservation.  And 
when  I  tell  you  that  these  peculiarities  of  the 
letter  of  the  sacred  record,  which  are  so  often 
urged  as  an  objection  to  its  inspiration,  were 
not  only  necessary  to  its  reception  and  preser- 
vation, but  were  needed  also  to  perfect  the 
series  of  truths  which  constitute  its  internal 
spiritual  sense,  I  only  say  what  is  verified  and 
is  provable.  For  these  sacred  histories  are 
representative  not  only  in  a  general  way,  but 
specifically  as  to  the  actors,  in  their  successes 
and  reverses,  as  to  all  the  scenes,  and  every 
particular. 

This  is  strange  only  because  it  has  not  been 
known.  Devout  discipleship  has  always  seen 
something  of  the  general  representation.  It 
has  been  known  that  Canaan  represents  the 
Church  and  Heaven ;  that  Israel  represents 
the  spiritual  Israelite,  who  is  without  guile 
before  God ;  and  that  their  enemies  typify 
the  besetting  evils  of  the  heart  and  obstruc- 
tions to  the  Christian  life.     But  it  is  now  to 


152     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION, 

be  known  that  this  is  not.  only  true  in  a  figur- 
ative sense  and  general  way,  but  exactly  as  to 
every  particular  recorded,  even  those  whieh 
are  historically  trivial  and  unaccountable. 
This  needs  to  be  known,  and  is  therefore  re- 
vealed in  our  day,  for  two  reasons  :  First,  to 
restore  confidence  in  the  Inspiration  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  to  lead  on  to  an  affirmative  and  ex- 
pectant study  of  it.  The  searching  analysis 
of  modern  criticism  has  brought  to  light  so 
much  in  the  mere  letter  to  be  complained  of 
and  caviled  at,  that  it  has  determined  the 
thought  of  the  Church  away  from  the  "  spir- 
it "  which  "  giveth  life,  "  and  left  us  the  dead 
letter  of  a  peculiar  history,  which  .is  regarded 
as  holy  only  from  its  antiquity.  Nothing  but 
an  equally  critical  exposition  of  the  spiritual 
meanings  involved  in  each  and  every  particu- 
lar case  can  again  restore  it  to  reverence,  and 
open  its  divine  uses.  Then,  second,  this  needs 
to  be  known,  because  it  is  not  a  mere  techni- 
cal issue  of  the  Inspiration  of  Scripture,  but 
a  matter  of  practical  import  in  the  illustra- 
tion of  Christian  life.  The  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures have  not  fulfilled  their  use,  and  ceased 
to  be  the  Word  of  God.  The  day  is  coming 
when  the  spiritual  sense  of  all  this  history 
and  symbol  will  be  unfolded  to  your  wonder, 


PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION.    153 

and  you  shall  see  in  them  the  gospel,  such  as 
it  has  not  entered  into  your  heart  to  conceive 
of  it.  And  those  who  have  looked  upon  the 
dawn  of  the  coming  day,  testify  truly  that 
these  Scriptures  are  no  more  to  them  a  record 
of  bloody  wars,  and  unchaste  lives,  and  cruel 
persecutions,  man  with  man,  but  a  prophecy 
of  self-conquest,  a  particular  portrayal  of  the 
evils  to  be  encountered,  and  the  means  by 
which  they  are  to  be  subdued  and  the  king- 
dom of  God  established. 

And  how  much  we  need  this  instruction  ! 
It  would  save  us  many  a  sad  disappointment, 
and  fortify  us  for  strength  where  we  often  dis- 
play vacillation  and  weakness.  Multitudes 
are  received  into  the  Church  every  year,  un- 
der the  delusion  that  the  indeterminate  thing 
called  "conversion"  is  all  and  enough.  Af- 
ter a  hearty  and  painful  effort  to  rouse  them- 
selves from  worldliness  and  indifference, 
they  are  allowed  to  fancy  all  the  promises  of 
"a  new  heart,"  and  a  pure  one,  fulfilled;  and 
that  in  entering  into  the  communion  of  the 
Church  they  are  entering  into  a  land  "  flow- 
ing with  milk  and  honey,"  wherein  is  rest, 
peace  and  happiness.  But  they  soon  learn 
better;  and  the  disenchantment  is  often  at- 
tended with  remorse  and  despair.     How  many 


154     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

sad  mistakes  might  have  been  saved  you  if 
your  new  love  and  purpose  and  hope  had 
been  warned  of  the  "seven  nations  mightier 
and  stronger "  than  themselves,  already  in- 
trenched in  the  fastness  of  the  heart,  ready  to 
contest  every  advance  in  the  establishment  of 
heavenly  principles.  When  the  Israelites 
arrived  at  the  promised  land,  they  found  that 
their  real  warfare  had  just  begun.  And  for 
what  weary  years,  and  with  what  ever-shift- 
in  vicissitudes  it  was  carried  on  !  Sometimes 
they  were  victorious;  sometimes  defeated — 
once  having  even  the  sacred  ark  itself  cap- 
tured from  them  by  their  pagan  enemies.  In 
all  this  is  only  an  image  of  man's  conflict 
with  "the  foes  of  his  own  household,"  the 
wicked  native  occupants  of  his  heart,  his  he- 
reditary and  acquired  evils  which  he  cannot 
run  away  from,  but  must  combat  and  over- 
come. It  would  do  us  infinite  good  in  our 
struggles  to  know  that  the  Lord  goes  before  us 
to  cast  out  these  native  evil  and  false  princi- 
ples, not  all  at  once,  lest  the  land  become  des- 
olate, but  little  by  little,  as  spiritual  principles 
increase  and  multiply  and  become  fixed. 

If  this  principle  were  clearly  understood,  it 
would  save  much  of  what  is  known  as  "  back- 
sliding,"— the  indifference  that  follows  disap- 


PlilNCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION,    155 

poiutmeat.  Regeneration  is  not  accomplished 
by  a  sudden  and  irresistible  stroke  of  God's 
power,  but  by  little  and  little,  as  evils  are  sub- 
dued and  good  principles  established  in  obe- 
dience to  the  Lord,  who  is  "  the  Captain  of  our 
Salvation."  AVhen  we  have  put  down  pride, 
jealousy  is  at  hand ;  and  when  we  have  over- 
come selfishness  in  one  form,  it  comes  in 
another  form  in  the  suggestion  of  spiritual 
pride  that  we  are  getting  to  be  somebody.  No 
sooner  was  a  battle  won  than  the  Israelites 
forgot  God  and  fell  a  prey  to  another  foe;  illus- 
trating the  subtle  encroachments  of  our  selfish 
pride,  which  plunges  us  into  conceit  at  every 
successful  resistance  of  evil,  and  thus  leaves  us 
unprotected  from  a  still  more  persistent  enemy 
Our  Christianity  has  been  such  an  external 
and  formal  thing  for  the  most  part,  that  very 
few  seem  to  realize  that  it  involves  interior 
purification.  If  men  have  been  faithful  to  the 
laws  of  the  institutional  church,  observing  its 
formalities  with  decorum,  and  stoutly  calling 
on  the  name  of  Christ,  that  is  thought  to  be  a 
real  life  and  preparation  for  heaven.  It  is 
not  so,  however.  Good  it  may  be,  but  not 
enough.  Outward  piety  without  internal  re- 
pentance is  at  least  only  a  truce  with  our 
spiritual  foes. 


156     PRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION. 

Our  regeneration  is  efiected  by  the  implan- 
tation of  spiritual  good  and  truth,  and  then 
by  the  removal  of  what  is  evil  and  false.  But 
we  have  the  faintest  possible  conception  of  the 
process;  of  the  complications  of  evil  and  its 
entrenchment  behind  the  fallacies  and  sophis- 
tries of  our  artificial  lives.  "  By  little  and 
little  "  are  they  expelled,  only  as  the  fruitful- 
ness  of  a  true  culture  shall  abound  in  the 
spirit.  The  heart  knoweth  not  its  own  secret; 
the  understanding  doth  not  consider.  It  may 
well  be  that  our  defeats  are  of  Providence  as 
much  as  our  victories  are ;  not  only  following 
necessarily  when  we  turn  away  to  other  gods, 
but  revealing  thereby  new  foes  to  be  encount- 
ered and  new  truths  to  be  heeded.  We  can- 
not wish  ourselves  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
we  cannot  pray  ourselves  there.  We  must 
remember  the  Lord  our  God  and  keep  his 
commandments,  and  loyally  fight  on  against 
whatsoever  opposes  them.  With  "  the  sword 
of  the  spirit"  and  ''the  shield  of  faith,  "  we 
must  make  the  best  fight  we  can,  rallying  from 
every  defeat,  and  glorifying  God  in  every  suc- 
cess, "faithful  unto  death." 

God  hath  given  us  this  record  of  war,  with 
its  successes  and  reverses,  that  we  may  read 
in  it  our  own  evils  and  the   means  of  subdu- 


FRINCIPLE  OF  ADAPTATION,     157 

ing  theiUjthe  causes  and  the  issues  of  conflict, 
and  through  all  our  dependence  upon  Him 
and  the  ark  of  His  covenant.  Shall  we  re- 
nounce it  all  because  the  blind  learning  of 
our  day,  seeking  no  Divine  message  in  it,  has 
been  able  to  read  no  Divine  wisdom  out  of  it? 
Nay ;  rather  let  us  approach  it  as  the  good 
gift  of  God,  ready  to  learn  and  do  what  things 
He  has  therein  to  teach  us  profitable  for  sal- 
vation. It  is  not  history  or  science  that  we 
need  a  Bible  to  teach  us,  but  the  mysteries  of 
spiritual  life,  the  sins  that  so  easily  beset  us, 
and  the  weapons  of  defense  and  final  exter- 
mination. And  this  we  shall  find  whenso- 
ever we  seek  it  in  the  Holy  Word  if  we  are 
teachable  and  humble,  looking  up  to  the  spir- 
it and  not  down  to  the  letter.  And  in  the 
days  that  are  opening  upon  the  Church,  bless- 
ed shall  they  be  who  are  found  waiting,  and 
watching  for  the  coming  of  the  light  of  life ; 
for  they  shall  behold  it  breaking  forth  in  .  its 
revealing  splendors  out  of  the  darkest  clouds 
of  the  letter,  giving  a  new  meaning  to  human 
life,  a  new  breadth  to  the  Divine  command- 
ments, and  a  new  blessedness  to  the  promise, 
"  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  sit 
with  Me  in  My  throne,  even  as  I  also  over- 
came and  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in 
His  throne." 


VI. 

THE  DOOTEINE   OF  THE  SPIEIT- 

TJAL  SENSE  THE  OK"LT  AIS- 

SWEE  TO  SKEPTIOAIi 

OBJECTIOlvrS. 

Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away ;  but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away. 
—Luke  xxi  :  33. 

Men's  thonghts  change,  God's  endure.  Hu- 
man imaginations  serve  their  use  and  pass 
away;  but  the  eternal  realities  of  Divine 
Truth  retrain.  We  begin  with  fallacies  al- 
ways. We  see  at  the  first  only  the  appear- 
ance. Though  a  truth  be  hidden  in  the  falla- 
cy, though  a  reality  be  presented  in  the  ap- 
pearance, we  see  it  only  as  we  are  able;  and 
all  our  growth  in  wisdom  and  life  consists  in 
penetrating  appearances  and  rising  out 
of  fallacies  into  more  rational  conceptions 
of  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  truth.  Truth  may 
be  divested  of  its  garments,  and  ma}'-  be  seen 
more  and  more  clearly  as  to  its  real  quality, 
(158) 


SPIBITUAL  SEJSrSE.  159 

but  it  never  is  outgrown,  never  ceases  to  pre- 
sent new  fields  of  inquiry,  and  new  answers  to 
newly  awakened  questions.  Our  opinions  and 
beliefs,  founded  on  our  imperfect  and  fallacious 
interpetations  of  the  Lord's  words,  change  as 
our  states  change,  and  pass  away,  but  the  truth 
does  not  pass  away,  and  this  familiar  fact  is  a 
comfortable  rock  upon  which  to  rest  our  faith 
in  the  sufiiciency  of  the  Bible  to  meet  the  need 
and  guide  the  thought  of  this  skeptical  and 
speculative  time. 

Never  were  so  great  changes  at  work  in  the 
"  heaven  and  earth  "  of  human  minds ;  never 
were  opinions  so  generally  unsettled ;  never 
were  dogmas  so  little  respected  and  so  easily 
relinquished;  never  was  investigation  so  free 
and  independent,  ignoring  past  conclusions 
based  on  discarded  appearances,  and  reaching 
out  after  facts.  There  is  an  old  argument  for 
the  Bible  based  upon  its  age  and  its  influence, 
namely  : — These  Holy  Scriptures  have  stood* 
the  test  of  time.  They  have  been  the  foun- 
tain of  life,  light,  inspiration  and  hope,  to 
thousands  on  earth,  whom  we  trust  and  be- 
lieve are  now  enjoying,  the  felicities  of  life 
eternal.  They  have  revealed  the  Master,  and 
imparted  noble  motives  to  the  master-minds 
of  the  civilized  world.     All  this  is  good  and 


160  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

strong  presumptive  evidence  of  their  Divine, 
origin.  But  there  has  come  a  state  of  mind 
in  society,  to  which  this  argument  is  inade- 
quate. No  merely  external  evidence  of  the 
Divine  character  of  the  Scriptures  is  sufficient 
to  commend  them  to  the  love  and  faith  of  that 
large  class  of  thoroughly  honest  men  and 
women  to  whom  modern  criticism  has  ap- 
pealed. The  Bible  is  losing  its  hold  upon  so 
many  sincere  minds,  because  it  has  been  per- 
verted by  a  vast  amount  of  absurd  interpreta- 
tion, which  men  have  not  learned  to  separate 
from  the  Revelation  itself.  Historical  criti- 
cism, useful  as  it  may  be  in  discovering  what  is 
false  in  human  interpretation,  fails,  for  want 
of  a  true  doctrine  of  Divine  Inspiration,  to  dis- 
cern the  universal  and  eternal  Word  of  the 
Lord  in  Sacred  Scripture.  Its  present  ten- 
dency is  to  sweep  away  all  Divine  authority, 
together  with  the  traditions  of  men.  **Lest, 
therefore,  mankind  should  be  in  doubt  con- 
cerning the  Divinity  and  .  sanctity  of  the 
Word,  its  internal  sense  has  been  revealed, 
which  in  its  essence  is  spiritual,  and  is  in  the 
external  sense  as  the  soul  is  in  the  body.  That 
sense  is  the  soul  which  vivifies  the  letter ; 
wherefore  that  sense  can  testify  concerning 
the  Divine  sanctity  of  the  Word,  and  convince 


SPIRITUAL  SEJSrSE.  161 

even  the  natural  man  if  he  is  willing  to  be 
convinced." 

I  wish  to  give  you  some  final  reasons  for 
this  faith,  and  shall  endeavour  to  show  {a) 
the  great  present  need  in  the  Churches  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  internal  sense ;  and  {b)  that  it  is 
the  only  answer  to  ske|)tical  objections. 

1.  The  new  doctrine  of  the  Internal  Sense 
of  Holy  Scripture  is  needed  in  the  Churches, 
because  apart  from  it  there  is  no  practical 
faith  in  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God.  A 
practical  faith  is  a  working  faith.  It  must  be, 
as  far  as  it  goes,  rational,  assured,  settled,  con- 
fident. It  must  be  seen  to  inhere  in  the  nature 
of  things;  must  be  so  justified  and  confirmed 
as  to  become  a  principle  of  belief  and  conduct. 
There  is  no  such  faith  in  the  plenary  Inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  apart  from  the  doctrine 
of  their  internal  sense.  It  is  impossible  that  a 
belief  in  their  plenary  Inspiration  can  co-exist 
with  a  belief  that  they  contain  but  one  sense, 
and  that  the  literal  sense.  It  might  have 
been  possible  once,  when  men  believed  what 
they  were  taught  without  questioning  the  mat- 
ter of  belief  or  the  authority  of  the  teacher ; 
but  it  is  not  possible  in  this  day  of  intellectual 
activity,  when  teachers  debate  and  men  weigh 

evidence.     This  is  shown  not  alone  in  the  pres- 
11 


162  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

ent  confusion  of  opinion  and  timid,  apologetic 
defense  of  Revelation ;  but  also  in  the  history 
of  the  decline  of  the  doctrine  of  Inspiration. 

It  is  true  that  all  Christian  Churches  agree 
in  confessing  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God, 
but  upon  no  subject  is  there  greater  diversity 
of  opinion  than  upon  the  character  and  extent 
of  its  Inspiration.  "  The  consequence  of  the 
study  and  application  of  the  Bible,  from  the 
period  of  the  Beformation  (says  an  orthodox 
authority) ,r  has  been  gradually  and  progres- 
sively to  limit  the  extent  of  Inspiration ;  and 
by  so  doing  to  vindicate  (as  was  supposed)  the 
Holy  Character  of  what  is  unquestionably  of 
Divine  origin,  and  to  make  the  application  of 
the  rule  of  faith  more  sure."  The  belief  in  the 
Spiritual  sense  of  Scripture,  which  was  cur- 
rent in  the  primitive  Church  and  prevailed 
more  or  less  extensively  for  fourteen  centuries, 
had  suffered  much  discredit  on  account  of  fanci- 
ful and  absurd  interpretations.  Without  any 
rational  doctrine  of  the  inhabitation  of  the 
Spiritual  ser^se  in  the  literal,  and  with  no  rule 
of  interpertation,  the  temptation  to  read  human 
fancies  into  the  text  led  to  appalling  corruptions 
of  doctrine.  The  reaction,  of  course,  was  to 
insist  upon  the  authority  of  the  literal  sense- 
of  Scripture  as  its  final  sense ;  but  the  doctrine 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE,  163 

of  plenary  Inspiration  was  still  retained,  in 
name  at  least.  There  had  been  a  belief  in  "an 
entire  inspiration  of  matter,  words  and  com- 
position generally;"  but  "at  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  Luther  placed  the  first  limit  on 
this  view,  and  contended  that  the  matter  only 
was  of  Divine  origin,  the  composition  human." 
With  the  gradual  progress  of  inquiry  and  the 
more  diligent  use  of  the  Scriptures  a  further 
limitation  was  put  upon  their  inspiration,  and 
so  much  of  the  matter  of  the  Bible  as  conflicted 
with  the  developing  facts  of  natural  science, 
was  excluded.  Then,  with  one  portion  of  the 
matter  of  the  Bible  excluded  from  the  sphere 
of  Revelation,  it  was  contended  that  state- 
ments of  fact  which  belonged  not  to  Sacred  but 
to  profane  history,  should  be  excluded  on  sim- 
ilar grounds.  Next  was  raised  the  question 
whether  even  its  Sacred  history  is  inspired ; 
and  that  question  was  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive with  regard  to  all  except  such  portions  of 
the  historical  record  as  involve  a  matter  of 
faith  or  practice.  And  proceeding  on  this 
principle,  as  orthodox  criticism  has  done, 
namely,  that  the  Bible  is  to  be  maintained  as 
"  the  rule  of  faith,"  and  dogmatic  truth  the 
only  matter  needing  the  control  of  Inspiration, 
the  reasoning  of  the  inspired  writers  was  next 


164  SPIBITVAL  SENSE. 

held  to  belong  to  themselves  and  not  to  the 
Spirit.  Hence,  "  the  assertions,  and  not  the 
proofs,  are  the  proper  objects  of  unqualified 
assent." 

This  gradual  limitation  of  the  extent  of  In- 
spiration has  proceeded  upon  the  theory,  it 
must  be  remembered,  that  the  Bible  contains 
but  one  sense,  and  that  the  sense  of  the  letter  ; 
the  "meaning  which  it  had  to  the  prophet  or 
evangelist  who  first  uttered  or  wrote,  to  the 
hearers  or  readers  who  first  received  it."  Be- 
hold, then,  what  a  remarkable  basis  of  faith 
in  Inspiration  is  left  for  the  devout  acceptance 
of  men !  After  you  have  excluded  all  possi- 
ble mystical  meaning  in  any  part  of  Scripture, 
and  confined  its  Inspiration  to  the  plain  gram- 
matical sense  of  the  letter  ;  after  you  have,  ex- 
cluded all  that  is  peculiar  in  its  composition;  all 
allusions  to  natural  facts ;  all  matter  of  profane 
history ;  all  religious  history  that  is  not  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  establish  some  dogma  of 
faith;  all  parables,  illustrations  and  reason- 
ings; everything  but  the  exact,  direct  and 
unequivocal  assertion  of  matter  of  belief; — 
that  which  is  left  over  is  not  much. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  present  this  as  a 
statement  of  the  accepted  doctrine  of  Inspira- 
tion.    It   is   doubtful   if  the   Latitudinarian 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE,  165 

School,  which  as  we  read  the  signs,  is  begin- 
ning to  prevail  even  in  Orthodox  Churches, 
would  accept  the  consequences  of  such  a  state- 
ment. But  it  is  seriously  presented,  notwith- 
standing, as  the  logical  conclusion  required 
by  their  frequent  assertions  and  concessions, 
however  much  their  reverent  feelings  may 
revolt  against  such  an  intellectual  conclusion. 
It  is  probable  that  most  religious  teachers 
hope  to  maintain  a  truce  between  faith  and 
reason,  and  retain  a  real  belief  in  the  Divine 
Origin  and  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  while 
allowing  the  admissions  which  the  results  of 
criticism  seem  to  require ;  but  it  is  a  self-decep- 
tion that  cannot  last.  "So  long  as  it  was  be- 
lie ved,''  says  a  much  respected  authority,  "  that 
each  word  and  phrase  to  be  found  in  the  Bi- 
ble —  nay,  even  the  order  and  grammatical 
connection  of  such  w^ords  and  phrases  —  had 
been  infused  by  the  Holy  Ghost  into  the 
minds  of  the  Sacred  writers,  or  dictated  to 
them  by  His  immediate  suggestion,  so  long 
must  the  opinion  held  respecting  Inspiration 
have  been  clear,  intelligible,  and  accurately 
defined.  But  such  a  theory  could  not  stand 
the  test  of  close  examination.  The  strongest 
evidence  against  it  has  been  supplied  by 
the  Bible  itself;  and  each  additional  discovery 


166  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

in  the  criticism  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  text 
confirms  anew  the  conclusion  that  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of  Holy  Scripture 
can  no  longer  rely  upon  such  a  principle  for 
its  defense.  The  *  mechanicah'  theory  (he  con- 
tinues) having  been  tacitly  abandoned  —  at 
least  by  all  who  are  capable  of  appreciating 
the  results  of  criticism — and  no  systen  alto- 
gether satisfactory  having  been  proposed  in  its 
stead,  there  has  gradually  sprung  up  a  want 
of  definiteness  and  an  absence  of  consistency 
in  the  language  used  when  speaking  of  In- 
spiration, owing  to  which  those  who  are  most 
sincere  in  maintaining  the  Divine  Character  of 
the  Bible,  have  not  infrequently  been  betrayed 
into  concessions  fatal  to  its  supreme  authority." 
{Lee  on  Inspiration,  Preface,)  This  writer  in 
presenting  the  characteristic  of  "the  great 
majority  of  modern  theories  of  Inspiration," 
"that  of  ascribing  undue  prominence  to  the 
human  element  of  the  Bible,"  reduces  the  vari- 
eties of  opinion  which  may  be  traced  to  this 
source  to  the  following  : 

"  I.  To  the  first  head  may  be  referred  those 
writers  who  have  changed  the  formula  *.The 
Bible  is  the  Word  of  God,'  into  '  The  Bible 
contains  the  Word  of  God.'  Writers  of  this 
class,  while  they  generally  shrink  from  abso- 


SPIRITUAL  SEJSrSE.  16? 

lutely  drawing  the  line  between  what  is  and 
what  is  not  inspired,  yet  broadly  assert  as  well 
the  possibility  as  the  existence  of  imperfections 
in  Scripture,  whether  resulting  from  limited 
knowledge,  or  inadvertance,  or  defective 
memory  on  the  part  of  its  authors." 

"  II.  Under  the  second  head,  may  be  placed 
the  different  hypotheses  which  assume  various 
degrees  of  Inspiration.  The  tendency  of  all 
such  hypotheses,"  "is  to  fine  down  to  the  min- 
utest point,  if  not  altogether  to  deny,  the  agen- 
cy of  the  *  Holy   Spirit  in  certain  portions  of 

the  Bible Where   nature   ended,  and 

Inspiration  began,  it  is  not  for  man  to  say.'" 

"HI.  The  third  head  comprises  Schleier- 
macher  and  his  followers ;  the  shibboleth  of 
whose  school,  in  brief,  is  this :  *  The  letter  kill- 
eth,  the  spirit  giveth  life.'  The  idea  of  Rev- 
elation, according  to  Schleiermacher,  is  con- 
fined to  the  'person  of  Christ :  the  notion  of  In- 
spiration he  considers  to  be  one  of  completely 
subordinate  importance  in  Christianity ;  the 
sole  power  which  the  Bible  possesses  of  convey- 
ing a  Eevelation  to  us  consisting  in  its  aiding  in 
the  awakening  and  elevation  of  our  religious 
conciousness ;  in  its  presenting  to  us  a  mirror 
of  the  history  of  Christ ;  in  its  respecting  the 
intense  religious  life  of  His  followers ;  and  in 


168  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

giving  us  the  letter  through  which  the  Spirit 
of  Truth  may  be  brought  home  in  vital  expe- 
rience to  the  human  heart.'"     (Id.  p.  34.) 

Kejecting  the  doctrine  of  "mechanical" 
Inspiration,  and  these  theories  which  arise 
from  giving  undue  prominence  to  the  "  human 
element "  of  the  Bible,  this  author  proposes  a 
theory  of  Inspiration  by  which  he  wishes  to 
retain  the  truth  in  each  of  the  several  systems 
without  their  weaknesses  and  errors.  He 
makes  a  distinction  between  Kevelation  and 
Inspiration.  By  Bevelation  he  understands 
"  a  direct  communication  to  man,  either  of 
such  knowledge  as  man  could  not  of  himself 
attain  to,  because  its  subject-matter  transcends 
human  sagacity,"  "  or  which  was  not  in  point 
of  fact,  from  whatever  cause,  known  to  the 
person  who  received  the  Revelation."  By  In- 
spiration he  understands  "  that  actuating  en- 
ergy of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  whatever  degree  or 
manner  it  may  have  been  exercised,  guided  by 
which  the  human  agents  chosen  by  God  have 
officially  proclaimed  His  will."  Upon  this 
theory  some  portions  of  the  Scriptures  cannot 
be  said  to  contain  a  Divine  Bevelation ;  but 
they  are  all  the  result  of  Divine  Inspiration. 
This  Inspiration  "  employs  man's  faculties  in 
accordance  with  their  natural   laws;    at  the 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE,  169 

same  time  animating,  guiding,  moulding  them 
so  as  to  accomplish  the  Divine,  purpose." 
"  We  must  not  regard  the  Sacred  penmen,  on 
the  one  hand,  as  passive  machines,  yielding  to 
an  external  mechanical  force;"  *^on  the  other 
hand,  if  we  dwell  solely  upon  the  subjective 
phase  of  this  influence,  we  lose  sight  of  the 
living  connection  of  the  writers  with  God." 
In  a  word,  the  writers  were  themselves  in  the 
fall  possession  of  their  faculties,  and  their  own 
knowledge  of  history  and  precept ;  but  they 
were  so  guided  and  controlled  by  Inspiration, 
and  their  knowledge  so  far  supplemented  by 
supernatural  Kevelation,  that  the  result, 
while  partaking  of  the  peculiarity  of  genius, 
thought  and  feeling  of  the  writer,  is  never- 
theless Divine  and  authoritative  (pp.  140,42). 
This  theory  of  Inspiration  may  be  accepted, 
we  suppose,  as  substantially  representing  the 
position  of  the  most  thoughtful  among  Ortho- 
dox teachers  in  the  Churches.  It  contains 
many  elements  of  truth,  and  so  far  as  it  goes, 
it  is  capable  of  being  harmonized  with  the 
doctrine  of  an  indwelling  spiritual  sense  in  all 
Scripture.  But  standing  alone,  and  predicated 
of  the  mere  literal  sense  of  Scripture,  it  is  ut- 
terly indefensible.  It  fails  to  account  for  dis- 
crepancies in  facts  and  statements,  for  the  want 


170  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

of  chronological  accuracy,  for  tlie  unnatural 
arrangement  and  confusion  in  the  order  of  the 
narrative,  which  are  acknowledged  on  all 
hands  to  exist  in  the  Old  Testament  history. 
It  does  not  account  for  the  different  versions 
of  the  same  facts,  nor  for  the  seeming  contra- 
diction, both  in  the  relation  of  the  same  facts, 
and  in  the  relation  of  other  facts  which  ap- 
pear to  exclude  each  other,  in  the  Gospels. 
If  the  letter  of  the  Bible  is  exclusively  the 
Word  of  God,  containing  no  distinct  spiritual 
sense  to  account  for  these  apparent  difficulties, 
they  cannot  be  reconciled  with  any  theory  of 
Inspiration  which  claims  the  Bible  as  a  Di- 
vine and  authoritative  record.  "  To  suppose 
a  supernatural  influence  to  cause  the  record  of 
that  which  can  only  issue  in  a  puzzle,  is  to 
lower  infinitely  our  conceptions  of  the  Divine 
dealings  in  respect  to  a  special  revelation." 

In  estimating  the  need  of  a  new  doctrine  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  the  Churches,  there- 
fore, we  must  consider,  not  alone  what  is  put 
forth  as  the  theory  of  Inspiration,  but  also  the 
admissions  and  difficulties  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  render  the  doctrine  as  held  indefensible. 
It  will  be  found  {a)  that  among  a  majority  of 
the  teachers  in  the  Churches,  the  impression 
prevails,  not  that  the  Bible  is  the    Word  of 


SPIBITUAL  SEN'S!:,  171 

God,  but  that  it  contains  the  Word  of  God ; 
and  that  means,  not  that  it  contains  an  inter- 
nal sense  bj  virtue  of  which  it  is  Holy  and 
Divine,  but  that  some  things  in  it  are  true,  and 
some  are  not.  Where  the  line  is  to  be  drawn, 
what  is  to  be  accepted  and  what  rejected,  it  is 
not  easy  to  determine,  in  the  absence  of  any 
better  guide  than  the  individual  judgment.  It 
is  manifest  that  such  an  uncertain  faith  in  Di- 
vine Revelation  cannot  hold  its  own  poor 
footing  against  the  advance  of  a  destructive 
criticism. 

It  will  be  found  {b)  that  there  are  teachers 
in  the  Churches  who  contend  that  the  Sacred 
writers  were  so  guided  and  controlled  by  In- 
spiration as  to  have  produced  a  record  which, 
with  all  its  human  elements,  is  still  the  Divine 
and  authoritative  Word  of  God.  But  inas- 
much as  these  hold  the  literal  sense  to  be  the 
final  sense  of  Scripture,  they  are  left  with  no 
defense  against  the  destructive  exhibit  of  his- 
torical criticism,  save  their  own  naked  asser- 
tion. It  will  be  found  {c)  that  these  diffi- 
culties are  becoming  more  clearly  appreciated, 
both  by  the  Orthodox  and  liberal  teachers  in 
the  Churches.  The  Rev.  Moses  Smith  voices 
the  feeling  of  a  large  number  of  sincere  and 
able  ministers   when   he  writes,     **  Wanted : 


172  SPIBITUAL  SJEN'SJE. 

A  new  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Inspi- 
ration of  the  Bible."  "  Modern  scholarship," 
he  says,  "  has  made  large  advances  in  restor- 
ing the  original  Scripture  text ;  scientific 
discoveries  have  notably  improved  Biblical 
interpretation.  Some  modification  of  state- 
ment in  regard  to  Inspiration  would  naturally 
be  expected.  Such  modification  has  become 
imnerative.  The  old  forms  of  statement,  in 
the  face  of  modern  criticism,  are  like  stone 
forts  and  wooden  frigates  in  the  face  of  mod- 
ern ordinance  and  iron-clads." 

The  defect  thus  confessed  is  not  alone  in  the 
inadequate  statement,  however,  but  in  the  fal- 
lacious conception  of  the  Divine  character  of 
the  Scriptures.  What  is  needed  is  a  doctrine 
able  to  maintain  itself,  and  capable,  therefore, 
of  supporting  a  rational,  assured,  settled,  con- 
fident faith.  This  characteristic  the  new  doc- 
trine of  the  Internal  Sense  presents.  It  is  not 
disturbed  by  any  conflict  between  the  cos- 
mogany  of  the  Pentateuch  and  science,  nor  by 
historical  inaccuracies,  nor  by  literal  contra- 
dictions even,  since  it  declares  the  purpose  of 
Scripture  is  to  teach  neither  science,  nor  histor 
ry,  nor  formulated  dogma,  but  spiritual  prin- 
ciples. It  is  not  affected  by  the  obscurities  of 
the  letter,  for  it  possesses  a  rule  of  interpreta- 


SPIBITUAL  SEJSrSE.  173 

tion  by  which  to  resolve  the  apparent  confu- 
sion of  the  literal  symbols  and  representatives 
into  the  light  and  harmony  of  spiritual  truth. 
It  makes  little  difference  to  a  faith  resting 
upon  this  doctrine,  whether  the  Pentateuch 
were  written  by  Moses  or  copied  from  older 
documents;  little  diTorence  whether  it  be 
myth  or  fact  that  is  recorded.  For  it  accepts 
as  the  primary  aim  of  the  Word  the  revela- 
tion of  spiritual  truth ;  and  for  this  purpose  a 
myth  may  in  some  instances  be  more  service- 
able than  a  fact ;  a  fragmentary  history  more 
useful  than  exact  Chronicle.  What  this  doc- 
trine requires  is,  that  in  every  instance,  wheth- 
er myth  or  fact,  the  record  shall  contain  a 
distinct  spiritual  meaning  corresponding  with 
the  sense  of  the  letter ;  and  the  presence  of 
such  a  meaning  alone  constitutes  its  full  or 
"  plenary  "  Inspiration.  The  peculiarities  in 
the  record  which  are  brought  to  light  in  the 
progress  of  science  or  criticism,  will  be  wel- 
comed in  the  light  of  this  doctrine  as  so  many 
instances  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Spiritual 
Sense  ;  and  if  the  doctrine  be  true  it  will  be 
able  to  show  that  these  peculiarities  of  the 
letter  only  minister  to  the  sequence  and  per- 
fection of  the  spiritual  meaning.  Such  a 
doctrine  the  Churches  need;  and  nothing  but 


174:  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

its  acceptance  can  save  them  from  practical  re- 
jection of  the  Word  of  God. 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  Bible  is  able  to 
commend  itself  to  simple  faith ;  that  it  has 
met,  and  does  now  meet,  the  spiritual  wants 
of  many  sincere  Christian  people  who  have 
never  been  disturbed  by  the  clamors  of  criti- 
cism, and  who  have  never  attempted  to  define 
the  doctrine  of  Inspiration.  They  know  that 
they  have  always  been  accustomed  to  regard 
the  Bible  as  God's  Word,  and  beyond  this 
they  only  know  that  they  find  in  it  when  they 
seek  the  Bread  of  Life.  But  these  simple- 
minded  Christians  do  really  and  most  practi- 
cally believe  in  the  Spiritual  sense  of  the  Bible  ; 
and  it  is  this  which  makes  itself  felt  through 
their  unshaken  faith,  and  gives  them  wisdom 
above  their  teachers.  Once  destroy  that  faith, 
by  persistent  and  confusing  objections,  and 
thenceforth  "  one  suggestion  of  doubt  will  have 
more  weight  than  a  thousand  confirmations." 
It  is  precisely  this  which  is  being  done.  Peo- 
ple are  taught  to  think  of  the  letter  alone,  and 
they  hear  this  attacked  on  every  side  by  the 
most  specious  objections.  They  observe  that 
most  of  what  is  written  by  their  orthodox  and 
trusted  teachers  is  directed  to  the  defense  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  Sacred  books,  or  to  the 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE,  175 

reconciliation  of  Genesis  and  Geology,  or  the 
harmonizing  of  historical  discrepancies;  they 
observe  the  accumulating  strength  of  skeptical 
objections,  and  the  demoralization  of  their  own 
forces,  and  losing  thus  the  reverence  of  tradi- 
tion, and  finding  no  rational  basis  of  faith,  they 
are  without  the  S[)iritual  qualifications  for  per- 
ceiving the  Divine  Spirit  and  life  that  flow  in 
through  the  Word.  The  man  who  has  grown 
up  with  a  sincere  and  humble  reverence  for 
God's  message  to  him  in  His  Holy  Book,  and 
has  actually  tested  its  commands  in  his  life's 
experience,  knows  that  it  is  Divine  by  the  sur- 
est of  all  testimony :  "  Wherea3  I  was  blind, 
now  I  see."  But  such  is  not  the  condition  of 
the  rising  generation,  nor  of  any  great  number 
of  professing  Christians;  they  have  passed  from 
the  state  of  traditional  faith  into  a  skepticism, 
out  of  which  there  is  no  way  but  through 
rational  evidence  and  intellectual  conviction. 
They  must  be  taught  rationally  to  see  that 
there  is  an  internal  Spiritual  sense  everywhere 
present  in  Holy  Scripture,  by  virtue  of  which 
it  is  Divine,  and  then  they  may  if  they  will, 
reverence  it  as  God's  Word,  and  compelling 
themselves  to  obey  it  as  such,  confirm  their 
rational  faith  in  Spiritual  experience. 

11.     We  have  now  to  consider  the  doctrine 


176  SPIRITUAL  SEJSrSE. 

of  the  Internal  Sense  in  its  relation  to  skepti- 
cal objections.  The  first  general  answer  which 
this  doctrine  presents  to  all  skeptical  objections 
founded  upon  the  appearances  of  the  letter  of 
Holy  Scripture  is  this :  "  Admitting  all  the 
difficulties  which  you  have  brought  forward, 
the  fair  inference  from  such  appearances  is, 
not  that  the  Scriptures  are  uninspired,  but  that 
if  they  are,  they  must  contain  that  superior  wis- 
dom which  is  the  criterion  of  Inspiration,  in  an 
interior  sense  distinct  from  the  literal  expression- 
We  find  in  the  Scriptures  numerous  intimations 
leading  us  to  look  for  something  beyond  the 
letter;  the  difficulties  you  have  raised  are  cal- 
culated to  turn  our  attention  in  the  same  direc- 
tion ;  you  have  produced  nothing  that  can  con- 
vince a  reflecting  mind  that  the  Scriptures  are 
not  the  Word  of  God;  you  only  compel  us  to 
correct  our  conceptions,  and  take  higher  views 
as  to  what  the  Word  of  God  must  really  be; 
your  objections  hold  mainly  against  your 
first  assumed  canon  of  interpretation,  namely  : 
that  the  Scriptures  contain  but  one  sense  and 
that  the  literal  sense ;  they  judge  your  own 
position,  and  sustain  the  first  conclusion  of 
reason  that  a  Eevelation  which  is  really  from 
God,  must  contain  the  mind  of  God — not  upon 
its  face  but  within  its  bosom." 


ms^ 


SPIRITUAL  SEK^. 

This  answer  does  not  indeed  prove  that  the 
Scriptures  are  the  Word  of  God,  but  it  indi- 
cates the  proper  attitude  of  the  inquirer,  and 
establishes  a  ruling  principle  of  criticism, 
which  the  objections  drawn  from  the  letter  of 
Scripture  in  no  way  invalidate,  but  rather 
strengthen.  This  principle  is,  that  the  evi- 
dences of  Divine  Inspiration,  and  the  final  and 
harmonizing  sense  of  Scripture,  is  to  be  sought 
for  within,  and  not  without.  If  the  matter  to 
be  revealed  is  the  Divine  and  Infinite  wisdom, 
and  God  has  nothing  else  to  reveal;  if  those  to 
whom  it  is  to  be  adapted  and  revealed  are  im- 
mersed in  evils  and  fallacies ;  it  follows  as  a 
necessary  conclusion  that  the  real  matter  of 
Revelation  must  be  involved  in  earthly  sym- 
bols and  representatives,  and  that  it  is  to  be 
sought  within  the  symbols  and  representatives 
and  not  confounded  with  them.  Strong  pre- 
sumptive evidence  in  favor  of  this  position  is 
furnished  in  the  facts,  (a),  that  the  Scriptures 
repeatedly  make  this  claim  for  themselves ;  (5) 
that  it  was  accepted  and  made  the  basis  of 
interpretation  in  the  Primitive  Church;  (c) 
that  it  has  been  tacitly  accepted  and  practically 
followed  by  all  earnest  Christians  who  have 
realized  the  highest  experiences  of  Spiritual 
life,  and  {d)^  that  the  symbols  and  representa- 

12 


178  SPIBITVAL  SENSE. 

tives  of  the  letter,  as  examined  and  compared 
in  the  light  of  modern  criticism,  cannot  be 
understood  as  presenting  the  genuine  Divine 
truth  upon  their  face,  and  must  be  regarded  as 
its  clothing  and  representative  mirror,  or  as 
unworthy  of  reverence. 

In  the  face  of  all  this  it  ought  not  to  seem 
impossible  nor  improbable  that  there  is  a  Di- 
vine Law  governing  the  inhabitation  of  Spirit- 
ual wisdom  in  the  letter  of  Scripture,  and  that 
that  law  should  be  revealed  in  the  Church  and 
become  a  universal  rule  of  interpretation. 
These  considerations  should,  at  least,  create  in 
the  earnest  truth-seeker,  an  affirmative  attitude 
of  mind,  toward  the  doctrine  of  an  internal 
sense,  and  that  established,  the  rest  is  a  matter 
of  fact.  It  is  incumbent  upon  the  doctrine  of 
the  internal  sense  to  demonstrate  its  fitness,  and 
upon  its  doctrine  of  Correspondence  to  show 
its  reality  by  its  ability  to  unlock  the  symbols 
of  the  letter,  and  explain  the  peculiarities  of 
the  literal  record.  This  we  claim  it  will  do 
for  the  inquirer  who  approaches  in  an  affirma- 
tive state  of  mind.  But  he  must  guard  against 
prejudice  as  an  end  of  inquiry.  He  must  ad- 
mit the  possibility  provisionally  or  he  cannot 
proceed.  I  have  done  what  I  could  in  former 
lectures  to  throw  light  upon  the  general  sub- 


SPIRITUAL  SERSE.  179 

ject  in  such  a  way  as  to  create  this  aflSrmative 
attitude  of  inquiry.  Whoever  is  ready  for 
proofs,  and  willing  to  see  them  if  they  are 
valid,  may  find  them  in  Swedenborg's  Arcana 
Coelestia,  or  in  the  expository  works  of  the 
New  Church,  where  the  actual  working  power 
of  the  doctrine  of  Correspondence,  as  a  rule  of 
interpretation,  is  presented.  For  my  present 
purpose  I  must  again  assume  these  evidences 
perfect,  that  I  may  proceed  to  state  in  brief 
the  answers  of  this  doctrine  to  some  of  the 
particular  objections  of  skepticism. 

(1)  As  to  the  Authenticity  of  the  Canon. 
We  are  told  that  "the  ablest  critics  agree  only 
in  the  opinion  that  no  safe  opinion  can  be  pro- 
nounced," "as  to  when,  or  by  whom,  or  on 
what  principle"  the  Jewish  Canon  was  estab- 
lished, and  that  it  is  equally  impossible  to  tell 
when  or  by  whom  the  four  Gospels  were  writ- 
ten. This  difficulty  is  urged  against  the  In- 
spiration and  Divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
on  the  assumption  that  such  authority  is  inad- 
missible unless  you  can  authenticate  an  inspir- 
ed writer  and  "a  perfect  two-thousand-year- 
long chain  of  preservation  and  transmission" 
of  the  original  writing.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  defenders  of  the  Bible  should  seem  to 
admit  this  assumption  in  accepting  the  issue. 


180  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

It  is  well  enough  for  historical  critics  to  bring 
to  light  what  facts  they  are  able  in  regard  to 
the  authenticity  of  the  Sacred  books,  but  it  is  a 
mistake  to  rest  the  question  of  Inspiration  upon 
external  evidences  of  authenticity ;  (a) ,  Because 
external  evidence  in  such  matters  is  exceed- 
ingly uncertain,  and  may  be  easily  used  to 
confirm  any  hypothesis  with  which  the  inves- 
tigation is  begun.  The  results  of  criticism 
show  that  this  is  the  case,  and  that  opposite 
schools  can  with  great  show  of  success  press  the 
uncertain  data  to  the  support  of  opposite  conclu- 
sions, {h),  Because  it  is  not  a  primary  question. 
Its  settlement  determines  nothing  with  re- 
spect to  the  Divine  character  and  Spiritual  value 
of  the  document.  If  the  authorship  and  pre- 
cise transmission  could  be  perfectly  authenti- 
cated by  external  evidence,  the  question  of  In- 
spiration would  be  just  as  far  from  being  set- 
tled, and  the  characteristics  of  the  writings 
just  as  difficult  of  explanation.  Error  uttered 
by  an  inspired  writer  is  no  more  truth  than 
the  error  of  an  uninspired  one,  and  the  primary 
question  is  not  as  to  the  human  authorship,  but 
as  to  the  Divine  content  of  the  Scriptures. 
Our  answer  to  all  objections  based  upon  the 
difficulty  of  authenticating  by  external  evi- 
dence the  authorship  and  purity  of  the  Sacred 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  181 

text  is  this :  The  Scriptures  are  Divine  by 
virtue  of  a  distinct  Spiritual  sense  exactly  with- 
in the  letter ;  the  Science  of  Correspondence 
discloses  such  a  sense,  it  is,  therefore,  the  true 
test  of  Divine  authenticity.  I  must  remind 
you  again,  that  this  Science  of  Correspondence 
is  a  definite  and  teachable  system ;  that  it 
can  be  studied  and  applied,  and  the  re- 
sults examined  in  the  light  of  reason  ;  that  it 
has  been  so  studied  and  applied,  and  the  result 
is  an  intelligible,  serial  and  consistent  Spiritual 
sense  in  verse  after  verse,  and  book  after  book, 
and  that  to  those,  who,  from  examination,  are 
alone  competent  to  judge,  the  rule  of  interpreta- 
tion and  the  Spiritual  sense  elicited  verify  each 
other.  If,  now,  it  should  be  demonstrable  thiat 
Genesis  yields  upon  the  application  of  this 
science  a  serial  and  harmonious  Spiritual  sense 
in  all  respects  worthy  of  a  Divine  Revelation, 
and  the  book  of  Proverbs  does  not ;  then  any 
reasonable  man  must  conclude  that  the  Divine 
content  of  Genesis  is  its  authentication,  even 
though  there  should  be  no  evidence  of  any  kind 
that  it  was  written  by  Moses,  or  any  one  man 
at  any  one  time,  and  though  there  should  be 
the  most  unmistakable  evidence,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  Proverbs  were  written  by  their 
reputed  author.     If  the  rule  of  interpretation 


182  SPIRITUAL  SEJSFSE. 

were  a  loose  and  imperfect  key,  unlocking 
some  passages  or  even  some  chapters,  and  fail- 
ing in  others,  it  could  scarcely  be  accepted  as 
the  test  of  the  Divine  Canon.  But  such  is  not 
its  character.  It  unlocks  the  intelligible  secret 
of  those  books  which  bear  upon  their  face  the 
claim  to  be  the  Word  of  God.  It  applies  with 
equally  happy  results  to  the  Pentateuch  and  to 
the  Four  Gospels,  to  the  Pslams  and  to  the 
Prophets,  showing  in  each  and  all  a  connected 
and  harmonious  internal  sense.  In  the  face  of 
such  internal  evidence,  the  conjectures  and 
debates  of  the  critics  from  their  uncertain  his- 
torical data,  is  mere  ingenious  trifling,  and 
the  most  sober  and  assured  results  of  literary 
criticism  possess  only  a  secondary  value. 

(2)  As  to  the  Mythical  element  in  Sacred 
Scripture,  We  are  told  that  much  of  the 
Scriptures  which  is  historical  in  form  is  mythi- 
cal in  fact,  that  the  writings  of  the  Hebrews, 
like  the  earliest  writings  of  all  nations,  are 
mythical,  and  that,  therefore,  they  are  of  hu- 
man origin  and  possess  no  more  Divine  au- 
thority than  other  writings.  It  is  asked,  "can 
a  book  like  Genesis  or  Exodus,  made  up  largely 
of  legends,  be  of  equal  value  as  history  with  a 
later  book  which  really  is  history."  A  very 
pertinent  question,  if  you  wish  to  obscure  the 


SPIRITUAL  SEJSrSE,  183 

whole  subject  by  assuming  that  the  main  pur- 
pose of  the  Scriptures  is  to  teach  history,  and 
their  value  to  be  tested  by  historical  accuracy. 
This  assumption,  however,  we  deny.  No  critic, 
orthodox  or  heterodox,  has  ever  presented  any 
good  reason  for  it.  It  certainly  was  not  a  doc- 
trine of  Primitive  Christianity;  it  certainly  is 
not  promotive  of  Spiritual  thought  or  religious 
faith.  There  is  much  more  wisdom  and  Spirit- 
uality in  the  position  taken  by  a  clergyman  of 
the  English  Church  recently,  who,  declaring 
his  belief  in  the  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  says; 
"I  believe  the  Spirit  of  God,  not  only  moved 
by  secret  impulses  the  minds  of  the  Sacred 
writers,  but  also  overruled  to  a  great  extent  the 
ipsissima  verba  of  Holy  writ.  And  nowhere 
do  I  feel  (rightly  or  wrongly)  the  Divine  In- 
spiration more  strongly  and  pervadingly,  than 
in  the  early  record  of  Genesis;  every  sentence, 
as  Augustine  says,  contains  a  mystery.  And 
yet  I  do  regard  these  records  as  myths,  and  I 
think  that  all  the  efforts  made  to  reconcile  their 
statements  with  historv  and  with  science  are 
only  so  much  industry  thrown  away."  This 
is  the  true  position,  and  a  perfectly  natural 
and  consistent  one  if  we  start  with  the  assump- 
tion of  the  real  claim  of  the  Scriptures  that  they 
are  God-inspired  and  profitable  for  instruction 


184:  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

in  righteousness.  Then,  manifestly,  a  myth 
may  be  more  serviceable  as  a  vehicle  of  Di- 
vine and  Spiritual  truth  than  the  most  dog- 
matical form  of  doctrine,  or  the  most  exact 
statement  of  historical  fact.  That  we  should 
find  both  a  Divine  and  a  human  element  in 
the  Bible,  and  that  the  human  element  should 
be  variable,  in  adaptation  to  the  changing  cast 
of  thought  of  successive  ages,  is  precisely 
what  we  should  expect  in  a  written  Revela- 
tion. That  the  earliest  written  forms  of 
Divine  Revelation  should  receive  a  mythical 
expression,  is  in  entire  agreement  with  what 
we  know  of  the  genius  of  the  ancients.  Why 
then  should  we  conclude  that  because  a  myth- 
ical element  is  found  in  the  Bible,  the  Divine 
must  be  wanting?  Such  an  assumption,  is 
wholly  gratuitous  and  inconclusive,  and  is  of 
a  piece  with  the  insane  notion  of  "develop- 
ment," that  would  trace  everything  back  to 
nothing.  If  any  one  chooses  to  believe  that 
the  ancient  myths  and  legends  had  their  ori- 
gin in  ignorance  and  superstition,  he  is  indeed 
entitled  to  his  choice;  but  he  should  know 
that  the  facts  presented  by  comparative  my- 
thology require  no  such  conclusion,  and  lend 
to  it  no  color  of  truth,  unless  you  deny  before 
hand  that  there  is  a  God,  or,  being  one,  that 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  185 

He  is  able  to  reveal  Himself  to  man.  What 
modern  learning  has  done  is  this:  "It  traces 
the  widely-scattered  families  of  our  race  to- 
day, through  the  mazes  of  diverse  languages, 
myths  and  religions,  to  our  common  old 
Aryan  homestead  ;"  and  shows  us,  "  looming 
forth  from  the  mists  of  past  ages,  the  great 
trunk  of  a  primitive  religion  and  an  Ancient 
Word,  of  which  all  the  various  religions  and 
sacred  traditions  of  later  times  are  but  the  nu- 
merous and  fruitful  branches."  The  attempt 
to  construct  this  primitive  religion  out  of 
natural  elements  alone,  and  to  refer  it  to  the 
so-called  Solar  and  Lunar  Deities,  or  the  su- 
perstitious reverence  for  natural  phenomena, 
explains  nothing  but  the  pre-conceptions  of 
those  who  invent  it. 

We  believe  that  these  myths,  legends,  tales 
of  the  gods,  pictures  of  the  qualities  and  attri- 
butes and  operations  of  the  one  God  in  his 
dealings  with  men,  had  their  origin  not  in 
darkness,  but  in  light ; — in  that  spiritual  wis- 
dom and  open  revelation  enjoyed  by  the  Most 
Ancient  Church,  when  Nature  was  to  them 
full  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  life,  which  then, 
in  orderly  influx,  was  communicated  from  the 
Deitv  without  the  need  of  a  written  Word. 
At  first,  creation  was  to  them  an  open  book  of 


186  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

symbols,  a  mirror  of  Divine  and  Spiritual 
things  ;  but  when  this  faculty  of  intuitive  per- 
ception began  to  decline,  in  consequence  of 
their  turning  to  sensuous  things  for  their  own 
sake  instead  of  regarding  them  as  the  means 
of  heavenly  intelligence  and  use,  whilst  yet 
among  the  wisest  a  desire  for  the  knowledge 
of  heavenly  things  remained,  then  they  per- 
petuated by  instruction  those  things  which 
had  before  been  known  by  intuition.  Thus 
originated  mythical  stories  and  allegorical 
histories,  by  which  were  expressed,  by  means 
of  analogies  taken  from  nature  and  human 
conduct,  the  spiritual  truths  which  had  at  the 
first  been  intuitively  perceived  in  their  natural 
correspondences  and  representatives.  They 
described  spiritual  and  interior  subjects,  in 
language  borrowed  from  the  appearances  of 
nature,  in  allegory  and  myth,  without  danger 
of  such  forms  of  expression  being  misunder- 
stood as  literal  statement  of  ordinary  fact. 
The  earliest  form  of  Divine  Revelation  as- 
sumed, therefore,  a  mythical  expression,  as  a 
necessary  adaptation  to  the  genius  of  the  peo- 
ple to  whom  it  was  given ;  and  the  first  eleven 
chapters  of  Genesis,  copied  from  the  ancient 
Word,  are  illustrations  of  the  purely  correspon- 
dential   style    of    the    primitive    Eevelation. 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  ISt 

The  various  mythologies  are  but  branches  of 
this  ancient  trunk  of  Revelation ;  they  point 
with  wonderful  distinctness  to  their  common 
pre-historic  origin ;  they  bear  in  their  bosoms, 
buried  under  many  corruptions,  the  Divine 
wisdom  which  is  veiled  in  the  natural  symbol- 
ism and  allegory  of  our  written  Bible;  and  the 
Science  of  Correspondence  which  opens  to  our 
wondering  vision  a  complete  and  serial  spirit- 
ual sense  within  the  latter,  furnishes  also  a 
key  to  the  lost  meaning  and  uniform  origin  of 
all  sacred  myths.  When,  therefore,  it  is  ob- 
jected, that  much  which  purports  to  be  a  his- 
tory of  God's  dealings  with  men,  and  of  the 
order  and  time  of  creation,  possesses  neither 
historical  nor  scientific  value — is  in  fact  mere 
fable  and  myth,  without  any  Divine  Author- 
ity— we  admit  the  fact,  and  deny  the  conclu- 
sion. And  while  modern  criticism  can  only 
substantiate  the  fact,  the  doctrine  of  the  Inter- 
nal Sense  gives  a  reason  for  the  fact  and  veri- 
fies its  reason  by  the  exhibit  of  an  intelligible 
Spiritual  Sense  in  each  and  every  fabulous 
history  and  so-called  mythical  interpolation, 
in  its  place.  We  may  class  also  under  this 
head  all  of  those  objections  which  are  founded 
upon  such  peculiarities  of  the  text  as,  (a)  the 
want  of  chronological  accuracy,  {b)  historical 


188  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

discrepancies,  (c)  the  recurrence  of  round 
numbers,  such  as  are  popularly  supposed  to 
possess  a  mystical  meaning,  {d)  repetitions  of 
the  same  fact  or  narrative  under  different  con- 
ditions, or  in  relation  to  different  persons,  {e) 
an  unnatural  arrangement  and  dislocation  of 
the  narrative  in  many  places,  and  (/)  the 
existence  of  poetical  and  mystical  forms  of 
speech.  These  peculiarities,  so  troublesome  to 
the  critic  who  bases  his  investigations  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  literal  sense  is  the  only 
sense,  are  seen  from  the  standpoint  of  the  in- 
ternal sense  to  furnish  no  ground  of  objection 
to  the  Divine  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
but  on  the  contrary,  are  actually  required  to 
contain  and  express  that  sense. 

(3)  As  to  the  apparent  sanction  of  im- 
mortality.  The  answer  to  this  whole  class  of 
objections,was  really  furnished  in  the  discourse 
on  the  Principle  of  Adaptation ;  that  Divine 
truth,  in  order  to  make  itself  apprehensible  in 
any  form  to  such  a  people  as  the  Jews,  and  com- 
pel their  obedience  to  any  laws  of  Divine  order, 
must  necessarily  be  expressed  in  accommoda- 
tion to  their  carnal  state  and  fallacious  notions. 
Every  Revelation  is  and  must  be  an  accom- 
modation of  the  matter  so  revealed  to  the  states 
and  capacities  of  those  to  whom  it  has  come.  It 


SPIRITUAL  SEJSrSE,  189 

must  therefore  of  necessity  indicate  two  things  : 
the  mode  in  which  it  is  made  will  indicate  the 
states  and  character  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
originally  given  ;  the  substance  of  the  Reve- 
lation will  indicate  the  matter  which  was  to  be 
made  known.  Every  Divine  Kevelation  must 
therefore  contain  both  genuine  and  apparent 
truths — truth  as  it  is,  and  truth  as  it  appears  to 
those  to  whom  it  is  revealed.  The  appearance 
does  stand  for  a  reality,  just  as  do  the  falla- 
cies of  the  senses  in  man's  relation  to  the 
world ;  and  those  who  regard  them  in  simplic- 
ity and  regulate  their  conduct  accordingly 
are  clearly  gainers.  The  appearances  of 
truth  in  the  letter  of  the  Word  simply  indi- 
cate the  states  and  character  of  man,  to  whom 
the  genuine  truth  was  thus  accommodated; 
they  are  therefore  the  fallacious  aspects  of 
truths  which  only  h^Q^mQ  falsities  when  they 
are  confirmed  as  the  real  and  only  truth. 
The  presence  of  such  appearances  does  not 
argue  the  absence  of  a  Divine  reality,  any 
more  than  the  apparent  rising  of  the  sun  ar- 
gues the  absence  of  a  law  of  planetary  rota- 
tion. The  Spiritual  sense  opens  to  us  this 
Divine  reality  and  genuine  truth  ;  enables  us 
to  see  the  cause  of  its  fallacious  presentation 
in  the  letter;  and  removes  all  objection  to  its 


190  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

Divine  character  arising  from  such  appear- 
ances. We  have  applied  this  explanation  in 
a  former  discourse  to  the  wars  of  the  Jews, 
and  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  it  here.  Once 
admit  that  the  Israelites  were  chosen  merely  to 
represent  the  subjects  belonging  to  the  Church, 
and  consider  all  the  leading  characters  in  the 
record  as  representatives  and  types,  rather 
than  patterns,  and  all  difficulties  arising  from 
the  questionable  morality  of  some  of  them 
disappears.  We  then  see  how  the  record  may 
be  essentially  the  Word  of  God,  notwith- 
standing the  craft  imputed  to  the  immediate 
founders  of  the  nation  their  adherence  to 
eastern  manners  in  regard  to  the  intercourse 
of  the  sexes,  and  the  acts  of  violence  and 
treachery  committed.  Granted  these  immor- 
alities, and  even  the  apparent  imputation  of 
the  Divine  sanction;  what  then?  It  only 
shows  that  the  Jews  were  not  the  subjects  of 
a  real  church,  possessing  the  inward  principles 
of  spiritual  life,  but  only  of  the  type  of  a 
church — of  a  dispensation  representing  by 
external  acts  the  operation  of  spiritual  prin- 
ciples, in  which  they  had  no  actual  participa- 
tion. And  when  these  spiritual  principles 
are  unfolded  by  the  science  of  Correspond- 
ence, the  record  is  seen  not  as  offering  a  pattern 


SPIBITTTAZ  SEIsrSE.  191 

of  conduct,  but  as  a  Divine  mirror  constructed 
from  earthly  materials  for  the  reflection  of  the 
wisdom  of  heaven  ;  and  the  mirror  passes  from 
the  thought  in  the  contemplation  of  the  glori- 
ous imasre  which  it  reflects. 

(4)  As  to  infallihility.  It  is  objected  that 
whatever  view  is  taken  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
in  whatever  way  they  may  be  held  as  being  or 
containing  the  Word  of  God,  they  are  not  in- 
fallible. They  do  teach  error,  and  they  do 
mislead.  They  teach  one  set  of  doctrines  to 
one  class  of  men,  and  another  to  others.  They 
hold  out  to  the  simple  expectations  which  are 
continually  disappointed,  and  must  forever  be 
impossible  of  fulfillment.  Now,  all  that  de- 
pends on  what  you  mean  by  infallible.  If  you 
mean  that  the  Scriptures  should  contain  no 
errors  of  history,  or  of  science,  or  of  dogmatic 
precept — that  they  should  not  only  be  free  from 
false  and  fallacious  representations,  but  that 
they  should  be  able  to  prevent  the  possibility 
of  mistake  or  misapprehension  on  the  part  of 
their  readers,  then  we  grant  that  the  Scriptures 
are  not  infallible  in  such  a  sense.  It  is  not 
possible,  in  the  nature  of  the  human  mind, 
that  any,  even  a  Divine  Communication,  how- 
ever true  in  itself,  can  insure  man  against  the 
misapprehension  of  its  message.     Nor  is  it  pos- 


192  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

sible  that  it  could  make  itself  in  any  way  appre- 
hensible and  secure  man's  attention  and  obedi- 
ence, without  presenting  many  fallacious  ap- 
pearances of  truth  in  accomodation  to  his  perver- 
ted understanding  and  perverse  heart.  Much 
less  is  it  necessary  that  a  Divine  communication 
with  a  purely  moral  and  spiritual  purpose 
should  be  free  from  historical  and  scientific  in- 
acuracy.  But  if  by  infallibility  you  mean  what 
is  perfectly  and  unerringly  adapted  for  the  ac- 
complishment ^iits  own  end,  and  that  it  will 
not  mislead  those  who  put  their  trust  in  it  as 
a  guide  to  that  end ;  then  the  Word  is  infallible 
indeed,  and  its  infallibility  proven  by  cen- 
turies of  human  experience,  and  multitudes  of 
witnesses.  That  you  do  not  find  it  infallible 
when  judged  by  your  scientific  standards  of 
truth  is  not  strange,  since  it  is  not  offered  as  a 
guide  to  such  truth.  That  you  should  find  it 
contradictory  and  misleading  when  you  ap- 
proach it  with  minds  pre-occupied  with  theories 
foreign  to  its  purpose,  or  a  skepticism  that 
renders  the  reception  of  instruction  impossible, 
is  the  result,  not  of  anything  in  its  own  char- 
acter, but  of  your  own  mental  state.  But  as 
a  guide  to  righteousness,  to  those  who  seek  it 
as  a  message  from  God,  willing  to  learn  and 
do  what  it  teaches  it  is  infallible,  in  that  it  is 


SPIRITUAL  SEN'SE.  193 

infinitely  competent  to  the  accomplishment  of 
that  end,  and  infinitely  adapted  to  all  human 
states,  of  all  sorts  and  conditions,  good  or  bad, 
wise  or  foolish.  In  this  respect  it  is  not  only 
free  from  error,  but  is  altogether  above  and 
beyond  criticism..  We  do  not  say  that  the 
Scriptures  carry  upon  their  face  the  sciences 
of  theology  and  pneumatology,  any  more 
than  nature  carries  her  sciences  upon  her  sur- 
face; nor  that  they  are  able  to  preserve  men 
from  false  conclusions  from  fallacious  appear- 
ances ;  but  that  the  appearances  of  truth  which 
the  Scriptures  present  are  precisely  such  as  to 
best  guide  the  life  of  the  man  to  whom  they 
appeal.  Theological  accuracy,  even,  is  some- 
thing which  the  Scriptures  do  not  profess  to^ 
infallibly  guarantee;  and  all  objections  to  the 
Bible  on  this  score  of  its  fallibility,  are  di- 
rected against  a  dogmatic  position  of  protest- 
ant  Churches,  and  not  any  claim  or  profession 
which  the  Bible  itself  presents.  This  is  true 
in  fact  of  all  the  objections  which  I  have  no- 
ticed, as  well  as  the  many  which  I  must 
pass  over ; — they  avail  nothing  whatever 
against  the  Word  of  God  as  it  is  in  itself,  hut 
only  against  the  literalistic  interpretations 
and  narrow  sectarian  claims  which  commonly 
prevail. 

13 


194  SPIRITUAL  SENSE, 

Those  who  seek  the  bread  of  Life  in  the 
Scriptures  find  that  its  doctrines  are  doctrines 
of  life.  Their  history  and  prophetic  imagery 
are  but  the  clothing  of  thought,  and  when  we 
get  at  the  thought  we  get  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience of  spiritual  things,  not  natural;  princi- 
ples of  life  and  not  merely  definitions  of  belief. 
But  all  who  ever  did  come  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  inner  things  of  Holy  Scripture  had  to  pass 
through  many  states,  and  in  passing  through 
them,  to  experience  many  changes.  Things 
which  seemed  as  enduring  as  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  w^ere,  in  the  experience  of  those 
changes,  found  to  be  not  enduring,  but  only 
intended  to  serve  in  their  temporary  continu- 
ance, things  which  are  eternal.  They  have 
rested  on  some  conception  as  in  the  very  heart 
of  truth,  and  then  coming  again  into  states  of 
inquiry,  have  learned  that  their  conception  is 
only  partial ;  that  there  is  greater  breadth  upon 
the  commandment  and  unexplored  instruction 
in  the  bosom  of  song  or  story.  Mistakes  have 
to  be  corrected,  false  notions  dispelled,  and  the 
world  of  partial  ideas  in  wliich  they  lived 
must  pass  away,  both  its  heaven  and  its  earth  ; 
for  our  thoughts  with  respect  to  the  Lord 
change  as  well  as  our  thoughts  of  human  duty. 
But  in  all  these  changes  it  is  not  the  real  truth 


SPIBITUAL  SEXSE.  195 

which  passes  away.  All  that  is  real  remains, 
and  with  this  all  that  is  new  and  true  coal- 
esces— the  Word  of  the  Lord  shall  not  pass 
away. 

So  now  in  the  Church,  .this  which  indi- 
viduals have  often  experienced,  is  taking 
place  upon  a  larger  scale.  The  heavens  and 
earth  of  human  interpretation  are  passing 
away,  that  it  may  be  known  that  they  are  not 
the  Word  of  the  Lord,  that  endureth  forever. 
The  denial  of  the  Spiritual  sense  of  the  Word, 
which  is  latent  in  the  literal  interpretations 
and  naturalistic  theories  of  Inspiration  cur- 
rent in  the  churches,  is  itself  the  triumph  of 
infidelity.  It  is  thus  that  the  letter  kills. 
And  doubtless  in  the  Divine  Providence,  the 
skepticism  which  so  often  accompanies  modern 
critical  studies  is  being  turned  to  use  in  the 
destruction  and  dissipation  of  those  unworthy 
views  and  false  interpretations,  that  the 
Church  of  the  future  mav  know  and  teach  that 
"it  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth."  Because 
we  believe  that  the  day  is  at  hand  when  the 
falsifications  and  perversions  of  the  Word  of 
God,  to  which  the  ver}-  Word  itself  is  made 
subservient  in  the  strongholds  of  so-called  or- 
thodoxy, shall  pass  away  ;  when  the  dogmas, 
which   are   held  in  supremacy  to  the  Word 


196  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

from  which  they  profess  to  be  drawn,  must  be 
given  up,  willingly  or  unwillingly ;  we,  there- 
fore, offer  you  the  intellectual  help  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Internal  Sense  and  of  the  science 
of  Correspondence,  for  the  strengthening  of 
your  faith  in  the  internal  glory  and  Divinity 
of  the  Word.  Be  assured  that  if  the  Church 
is  to  arise  with  power,  if  faith  is  to  con- 
tinue and  exercise  a  power  in  the  life  of 
man  and  of  society,  the  Word  of  God  must 
be  vindicated  as  the  channel  of  truth  eter- 
nal. This  is  the  purport  we  believe  of  that 
prophetic  vision  of  the  river  of  life,  proceeding 
out  of  the  throne  of  God.  You  shall  see  if  you 
improve  your  privileges,  the  self-attesting  Di- 
vine truth  issuing  from  the  very  heart  of  God, 
full  of  the  power  of  His  Life — a  power  which 
is  not  in  words,  nor  in  dogma,  but  in  the  in- 
breathed Spirit  of  Divine  Life,  transforming 
mind  and  heart.  You  will  look  in  vain  in  his- 
tory and  science,  as  such,  for  this  power  of  life 
unto  salvation;  it  is  not  even  identified  with  the 
letter  of  law  and  precept,  but  is  in  them  flowing 
out  of  the  Divine  fullness.  You  will  find  this 
spirit  and  life  that  quickeneth — not  by  looking 
at,  but  by  looking  through,  the  letter  of  Holy 
Scripture.  And  if  you  will  use  the  means 
which  by  the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  are  at  this  day 


SPIRITUAL  SENSE,  197 

furnished  in  the  restored  doctrine  of  Corres- 
pondence, you  may  see  and  know  intellectually 
and  rationally  this  spiritual  character  and 
Divine  sufl&ciency  of  the  Word  of  God.  "  We 
testify  that  we  do  know,"  for  our  eyes  have  seen 
what  we  would  that  you  should  see  also,  "  that 
I  may  be  comforted  together  with  you,  by  the 
mutual  faith  both  of  you  and  me."     Amen. 


>«i  —   ^ 
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